/. 


7.  ^7 


LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

PRESENTED  BY 

"TTcx/     M.Gr.3-)-oe.-l-^^-r,DD, 


BR   121    .C73    1899 

crane,  Frank,  1861-1928. 

The  religion  of  to-morrow 


cy 


V, 


/. 


^     iH 


■i.<^ 


/-Kl/ufi-i 


ji'h. 


The   Religion   of 
To-morrow 


^'O- 


The  Religion 
To-morrow 


-^ 


7- 


FRANK  CRANE 


LO,    I    AM    WITH    YOU    ALWAY 

Mattheiu^  xxii,  20 


HERBERT  S.  STONE  &  COMPANY 

CHICAGO  ^  NEW  YORK 

MDCCCXCIX 


COPYRIGHT    1899    BY 
HERBERT  S,  STONE  &  CO. 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS 


Page 

CREDO vii 

CHAPTER  I.    Introduction  .  .  3 

Religion  is  the  Personal  Influence  of  God. 

CHAPTER  n.    The  Kingdom  of  Heaven      .    23 

The  Purpose  of  God's  Personal  Influence  is  Transforma- 
tion, not  Transportation. 

CHAPTER  HI.    Dynamics  .  .  .53 

The  Power  of  Religion  Consists,  not  in  Rewards  and 
Punishments,  but  in  God's  Personal  Influence. 

CHAPTER  IV.    Eternal  Life  .  .    81 

Life  Influenced  by  God's  Personality  Becomes  Eternal  in 
Quality. 

CHAPTER  V.    The  Shadow  of  the  Cross      ioi 

The  Central  Doctrine  of  Christianity  is  not  Based  upon 
the  Cross,  but  upon  the  Resurrection,  and  Salvation  is 
not  the  Legal  Consequence  of  the  Dead  Christ's  Deed, 
but  the  Present  Effect  of  the  Living  Christ's  Imma- 
nence, Made  Possible  by  His  Death. 

CHAPTER  VI.    Definitions      .  .  .129 

Scriptural  Terms  for  the  Operation  of  Religion  are  Ex- 
plainable only  by  Assuming  It  to  be  God's  Personal 
Influence. 

CHAPTER  VII.   The  Light  from  the  Cross  161 

The  Crucifixion  is  not  the  Atonement ;  It  is  but  a  Part 
of  the  Atonement,  and  It  or  Any  Scheme  or  Doctrine  of 
It  is  Impotent  unless  It  be  Vitalized  and  Completed  by 
the  Present  Personal  Influence  of  God. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  VIII.   The  Balance  of  Doctrine  217 

To  View  Religion  as  God's  Personal  Influence  Gives 
Coherency  to  Conflicting  Doctrines,  to  Contradictory 
Passages  of  Scripture,  and  to  Opposing  Elements  in  Hu- 
man Nature. 

CHAPTER  IX.    The  Incarnation     .  .    237 

The  Personal  Influence  of  God  is  Transforming  the 
World  as  a  Power  of  Social  Evolution,  not  as  a  Rule  of 
Social  Segregation. 

CHAPTER  X.    The  Leaven      .  .  .267 

The  Personal  Influence  of  God  is  the  Propagating  Power 
of  Christianity. 

CHAPTER  XI.    Hell     .  .  .  .293 

The  Bible  was  not  Given  to  Reveal  *'  Last  Things  " 
nor  Future  Events ;  not  to  Gratify  Curiosity,  but  to 
Reveal  the  Laws  of  God's  Personal  Influence. 

CHAPTER  XII.    Life  in  the  Heavens        .    331 
God's  Personal  Influence  upon  His  Eternal  Sons. 


APPENDIX 361 


CREDO 

*'You  would  better,"  said  a  learned  friend, 
who  had  examined  the  manuscript  of  this 
essay,  *'add  a  succinct  statement  of  your 
creed,  so  that  the  reader  may  not  be  led  by 
his  own  inferences  to  locate  you  theologically 
where  you  do  not  belong." 

Hence: 

I  believe  in  the  Trinity,  in  the  Atonement, 
in  Salvation  through  Faith,  in  Heaven,  in 
Hell,  in  the  Church,  and  in  all  the  other  doc- 
trines of  the  historic  creeds  of  Protestantism. 
But  I  believe  that  the  common  notions  of 
these  doctrines  contain  error.  This  error  is 
an  inheritance  from  the  theology  of  the  Roman 
Church,  which  substituted  a  complicated  sys- 
tem of  divine  machinery  to  do  what  can  only 
be  done  by  the  divine  personality.  The 
thought  of  this  age  is  discovering  the  utter 
untenability  of  mediaeval  dogmatism,  and  is 
swinging  back  to  that  view  which  was  held  by 
the  apostles  and  the  Greek  fathers.  The 
theory,  which  applied  to  all  our  Christian 
tenets  will  most  surely  be  a  touchstone  to 
separate  the  true  from  the  false,  the  artificial 


CREDO 

from  the  real,  is  the  theory  which  in  these 
places  is  set  forth;  to  wit,  that  Religion  is 
the  Personal  Influence  of  God. 

The  views  of  this  essay  are  such  as  can  be 
held  by  a  member  of  any  of  the  principal 
evangelical  denominations.  The  author  is, 
and  hopes  to  remain,  a  church  member.  He 
seeks  not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfill,  to  fill  Chris- 
tian concepts  fuller  of  Christ's  own  meaning. 
This  is  no  attempt  to  create  a  new-fangled 
Gospel.  This  volume  pretends  not  to  tell 
men  something  they  do  not  know,  but  it  seeks 
to  give  voice  to  what  the  common  people 
do  already  think  and  believe.  It  aims  to  be 
an  interpretation  of  present-day  evangelical 
thought,  not  the  heralding  of  a  new  cult. 


viil 


CHAPTER    I 

THEME 
Religion  is  the   Personal  Influence  of  God 


"By  the  term  'religion/  I  shall  mean  any  theory  of 
personal  agency  in  the  universe,  belief  in  which  is 
strong  enough  in  any  degree  to  influence  conduct. 
No  term  has  been  used  more  loosely  of  late  years,  or 
in  a  greater  variety  of  meanings.  Of  course  anybody 
may  use  it  in  any  sense  he  pleases,  provided  he 
defines  exactly  in  what  sense  he  does  so.  The  above 
seems  to  be  most  in  accordance  with  traditional 
usage."— George  John  Romanes,  Thoughts  on  Re- 
ligion, p.  113. 


CHAPTER   I 

The  proposition  this  book  seeks  to  substan- 
tiate is  that  religion  is  the  personal  influence 
of  God.  At  first  glance  that  statement  may 
not  appear  to  mean  very  much;  yet  as  we 
reflect  upon  it,  as  we  apply  it  to  all  of  our 
common  stock  of  the  doctrines  of  Christian- 
ity, it  will  be  found  to  have  a  startling  and 
far-reaching  effect.  As  we  bring  this  one  idea 
to  bear  upon  our  thought  about  heaven, 
hell,  salvation,  the  atonement,  faith,  and  so 
on,  we  discover  that  it  acts  upon  them  very 
much  as  our  knowledge  of  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion acts  upon  our  view  of  the  many  diverse 
and  conflicting  phenomena  of  matter.  The 
movement  of  the  planets,  the  differing  weights 
of  substances,  and  a  hundred  other  facts  of 
nature  were  but  curious  things,  ascribed  by 
some  to  magic  and  demons,  and  explained  by 
others  by  ingenious  shifts  and  contrivances, 
like  the  cycles. and  epicycles  of  the  Ptolemaic 
system,  until  the  all-regulating  law  of  gravita- 
tion was  announced;  and  then  we  perceived 
that  those  things  which  once  we  attributed  to 
whim  and  mystery  are  all  in  harmony  and  all 
3 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

unified  by  one  law.  That  religion  is  the  per- 
sonal influence  of  the  immanent  God,  I  con- 
ceive to  be  the  central,  all-ordering,  and  all- 
disposing  idea  that  harmonizes,  adjusts,  and 
makes  plain  and  reasonable  the  entire  scheme 
of  Christian  thought,  thus  occupying  in  theol- 
ogy a  position  somewhat  similar  to  the  position 
occupied  by  the  law  of  gravitation  in  physics.^ 
And  religion  is  nothing  but  the  personal 
influence  of  God.  All  of  its  operations, 
effects,  and  obligations  are  but  phases  of  that 
influence.  God's  influence  is  of  the  same  kind 
as  that  of  man.  It  differs  in  degree.  As  one 
man  affects  another,  so  the  person  of  God 
affects  men.  This  is  a  simple,  comprehen- 
sible thought. 

^  The  exactness  of  this  definition  maybe  questioned;  but  I  find 
it  impossible  to  discover  in  the  dictionaries  or  elsewhere  a  dis- 
tinct and  accurate  meaning  for  the  word  "  religion."  It  is  used 
loosely,  according  to  the  view  points  of  respective  writers  to  mean 
(i)  a  recognition  of  and  allegiance  to  a  superhuman  power,  (2)  a 
feeling  of  awe  toward  Deity,  (3)  a  system  of  faith  and  worship, 
(4)  the  practice  of  sacred  rites,  and  so  on.  Is  it,  then,  a  subjective 
numan  emotion,  conviction,  or  practice;  or  is  it  an  objective  im- 
pulse working  upon  man  from  above?  It  seems  to  be  a  general 
term  applied  to  various  phases  of  man's  relation  to  Deity,  and  is 
used  subjectively  or  objectively,  according  to  one's  notion  of 
divine  things.  When  a  positivist  speaks  01  "the  religion  of  hu- 
manity," he  takes  the  extreme  subjective  point  of  view,  regarding 
religion  as  a  phase  of  mere  human  experience;  while  in  this  writ- 
ing religion  is  conceived  of  objectively,  as  an  influence  constantly 
emanatmg  from  the  immanent  God.  For  one  to  say  that  this 
definition  is  incorrect,  because  religion  is  properly  subjective 
wholly,  will  be  equivalent  to  saying  that  I  have  not  proved  my 
proposition;  and  this,  of  course,  he  is  free  to  maintain.  But  it 
will  not  be  fair  for  him  to  assume  for  me  a  definition  which  I  re- 
pudiate, and  then  to  charge  me  with  a  wrong  use  of  terms.  Ety- 
mologically,  it  is  certainly  as  correct  to  use  the  word  "religion"  to 
mean  the  energy  of  the  divine  personality,  as  it  is  to  use  it  as  is 
done  in  the  phrases  of  the  monastery;  such  as  "  to  enter  religion," 
"her  name  m  religion  is  Mary  Aloysia,"  "he  is  a  religieux,"  and 
the  like.    (See  Century  Dictionary,  under  "Religion.") 


THEME 

This  idea  reconciles  our  theology  to  rea- 
son. It  gives  it  intellectual  beauty.  It 
changes  theology  from  a  rude  heap  of  unstable 
stones  into  a  beautiful  living  temple.  It  takes 
away  from  our  religion  a  great  part  of  those 
objectionable  tenets  at  which  infidelity  has 
leveled  its  bitterest  shafts  of  ridicule. 

Christianity  has  made  wonderful  progress. 
This  is  the  more  striking  because  at  the  same 
time  the  intellectual  leaders  of  the  age  have 
become  dissatisfied  with  its  framework  of 
creed.  It  is  significant  that  salvation,  regen- 
eration, and  the  atonement,  as  facts,  are 
to-day  more  potent  than  ever  before  in  the 
history  of  men,  while  as  theories,  as  explained 
by  theologians,  they  are  unsatisfactory  to 
many  of  the  most  intelligent  of  our  time. 
Over  and  over  again  have  the  common  notions 
of  almost  every  tenet  of  our  faith  been  shown 
to  be  scientifically  illogical ;  yet,  strange  to 
say,  this  faith  remains  full  of  an  undeniable 
energy.  How  shall  we  explain  this  paradox? 
The  irreligious  may  say  it  is  merely  the 
strength  of  superstition  and  primitive  fear; 
but  that  will  not  do,  for  our  religion  is  decid- 
edly one  of  progress,  it  is  vigorous  with  altru- 
ism, and  certainly  not  inconsistent  with  intel- 
lectuality. The  conservative  may  say  it  is 
because  our  theology  is  full  of  divine  power, 
the  foolishness  of  God  being  mightier  than 
5 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

the  wisdom  of  man.  But  it  is  a  question 
whether  the  foolishness  in  question  is  of  God 
or  of  ourselves. 

The  true  explanation  seems  to  be,  that  with 
all  its  covering  of  traditional  absurdities,  our 
quasi-mediaeval  theology  yet  contains  the 
idea  of  God.  It  still  brings  God  to  men. 
Thus  our  religion  succeeds  in  spite  of  its  irra- 
tional forms,  not  because  of  them.  Redu- 
cing all  theology  to  conform  to  the  one  dom- 
inant idea  of  the  personal  influence  of  God 
takes  away  most  of  the  elements  that  hinder 
its  acceptance  by  the  intelligence  of  mankind, 
and  thus  makes  it  a  more  perfect  vehicle  of 
God's  influence.^ 

Those  thoroughly  imbued  with  mediaeval 
dogma  may  be,  and  doubtless  hosts  of  them 
are,  truly  and  really  godly.  Even  when  men 
thought  the  stars  were  bright  specks  upon  a 
blue  cover,  the  sight  of  the  heavens  was 
inspiring.  But  as  the  knowledge  that  those 
glistening  points  are  worlds  floating  in  infinite 
distances  only  enhances  our  wonder  and  awe, 
so   the    removal    of    the    irrational    elements 


*  In  insisting  so  strongly  upon  the  divine  immanence  I  do  not 
wish  to  be  understood  as  either  denying,  or  in  the  least  degree 
detracting  from,  the  idea  of  the  divine  transcendence.  But  I  con- 
sider the  latter  to  be  fully  acknowledged  and  accepted  by  my 
readers:  I  take  this  for  granted,  and  confine  myself  to  the  former, 
as  being  the  thought  which  in  these  days  it  is  necessary  to  empha- 
size. All  the  transcendency  of  God  which  is  set  forth  by  the 
Augustinian  theologians  I  fully  believe  in;  but,  without  abating 
our  faith  in  this,  it  seems  to  me  that  it  is  God's  immanence  which 
is  to  be  the  note  of  the  future. 


THEME 

from  theology  can  only  give   new   power   to 
faith. 

Conceiving  religion  to  be  God's  personality 
influencing  us,  theology  is  changed  immedi- 
ately from  a  legal  or  a  statutory  science  to  be 
what  may  be  called,  in  a  way,  a  natural  sci- 
ence. It  can  be  then  prosecuted  with  all  the 
certainty  and  dignity  we  observe  in  studying 
sociology,  geology,  or  biology.  The  apostles 
and  prophets  are  our  great  teachers;  but  they 
are  our  Newtons  and  Keplers  and  Tyndalls, 
and  not  our  Blackstones  and  Chittys.  We  are 
in  a  realm  of  fact,  truth,  and  nature;  not  any 
more  in  the  realm  of  dogma  and  opinion  only. 
The  Bible  is  seen  to  have  worth  because  it 
"bears  witness  to  the  truth,"  not  simply  be- 
cause it  is  the  ipse  dixit  of  the  inspired  men. 
Inspiration,  then,  becomes  a  question  of 
whether  Jesus  and  His  apostles  truly  set  forth 
the  facts  concerning  God's  person  working 
among  men,  just  as  Linnseus's  and  Faraday's 
trustworthiness  depends  on  whether  they  truly 
set  forth  the  facts  concerning  the  methods  of 
God's  working  in  matter.  Too  much  impor- 
tance has  been  given  to  the  questions  of  the 
historical  accuracy,  to  the  secular  proofs  of 
the  authenticity  and  genuineness  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. These,  indeed,  are  interesting  and 
grave  matters,  but  they  do  not  to  any  degree 
affect  the  authority  of  the  volume  of  sacred 
7 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

writings,  which  exists  now,  not  primarily  to 
inform  us  of  historic  happenings,  nor  to  dis- 
close to  us  the  future  of  the  world  nor  the 
future  of  the  individual  soul,  but  rather  to 
bring  us  in  touch  with  the  divine  personality 
by  unfolding  to  us  the  character  of  God  as 
evidenced  in  His  laws.  His  workings,  and  His 
plans.  The  main  reason,  therefore,  for  be- 
lieving the  Bible  to  be  inspired  is  not  that  the 
mass  of  evidence  collected  by  Christian  apolo- 
gists is  conclusive  that  the  Book  was  actually 
written  by  certain  supposed  authors,  but  that, 
even  as  an  anonymous  volume,  by  whomsoever 
it  was  written,  it  reveals  to  the  reverent  and 
sincere  reader  the  potent  force  of  Deity,  a 
force  found  in  no  other  book.  Thus  our 
chosen  theory  relegates  the  question  of  in- 
spiration to  its  true  position,  and  puts  it  on 
its  true  basis. 

Conceiving  theology  to  be  the  science  of 
God's  personal  influence  transforms  it  in  some- 
what the  same  manner  in  which  alchemy  is 
changed  to  chemistry,  or  astrology  to  astrono- 
my. There  is  a  definite,  undeniable,  recog- 
nized force  among  mankind,  just  as  electricity 
is  in  matter;  this  force  is  manifest  in  certain 
uniform  phenomena,  such  as  an  individual 
conscience,  in  systems  of  religion,  in  individ- 
ual, racial,  and  social  ethical  movements,  in 
those  moral  sentiments  which  characterize 
8 


THEME 

what  we  call  Christendom,  and  in  other  ways; 
now,  we  postulate,  as  a  hypothesis,  that  this 
force  is  the  influence  of  an  invisible,  every- 
where present  personality,  which  we  call  God, 
who  is  described  and  set  forth  by  the  Bible 
and  especially  objectivized  in  Jesus  Christ; 
just  as  we  postulate  that  a  certain  class  of 
phenomena  are  due  to  a  something  we  call 
electricity.  This  establishes  theology  as  a 
real  science,  subjects  all  its  statements  to  sci- 
entific tests  and  redeems  it  from  dogmatism. 

Theology  these  times  has  come  into  a  kind 
of  contempt.  It  is  common  for  us  to  speak 
slightingly  of  doctrinal  sermons,  and  authors 
of  religious  books  have  a  way  of  saying  they 
do  not  profess  to  speak  theology,  but  only 
religion.  Now,  what  is  the  logical  implication 
of  this?  Clearly,  it  is  that  we  have  abandoned 
the  idea  that  our  revelation  is  an  intellectual 
coherency.  We  recognize  it  as  a  true  force, 
but  are  shy  of  its  scheme  of  thought.  This, 
it  seems  to  me,  is  a  serious  matter.  For  cer- 
tainly God's  ways  with  men  ought  to  shine  with 
wisdom's  light  and  command  the  admiration 
of  finite  minds.  There  is  something  wrong 
when  we  evade  theology,  or  the  science  of 
religion,  as  a  thing  saved  from  intellectual 
disdain  solely  because  of  our  reverence  for  its 
subject  matter. 

The  reason  for  this  state  of  things  I  believe 

9 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

to  be,  that  the  advancing  intelligence  of  this 
age  has  proved  absurd  a  greater  part  of  the 
Augustinian  scheme  of  Latin  thought,  with- 
out formulating  any  more  rational  scheme 
to  put  in  its  place.  We  are  in  a  transitional 
stage,  having  left  Latinism  and  being  yet 
afraid  or  incompetent  to  step  boldly  out  into 
the  systematic  conclusion  of  our  new  convic- 
tions. Those  who  have  had  this  boldness  so 
far  have  been  mainly  those  who  have  swung 
off  as  schismatics  from  the  main  body  of 
Christian  believers;  and  they  have  taken  each 
some  one  minor  point,  and  endeavored  to  con- 
struct a  system  of  thought  about  it,  the 
invariable  result  being  in  each  instance 
another  one-sided  heresy. 

And  yet  what  we  call  heresies  are  after  all 
the  best  indicators  of  the  drift  of  the  thinking 
in  any  age.  In  the  days  of  the  Reformation 
the  trend  of  all  heresies  was  chiefly  govern- 
mental; that  was  the  day  of  revolt  chiefly 
against  the  erroneous  idea  of  churchly  author- 
ity; doctrinal  points  were  the  involved,  but 
they  were  not  the  fundamental  causes.  But 
in  these  later  years  the  character  of  the 
secessions  has  changed.  A  multitude  of  new 
sects  have  sprung  up,  each  of  which  proclaims 
a  new  doctrine  or  theory  of  religion.  Univer- 
salism,  Unitarianism,  Christian  Science,  and 
even  the  importation  of  Buddhism,  are  char- 


THEME 

acteristic  samples  of  modern  cults.  The 
student  of  the  philosophy  of  religion  must  view 
all  these  as  different  evidences  of  a  common 
force  working  in  human  ideas.  What  is  that 
force?  It  is  the  growing  idea  of  the  imma- 
nence of  God.  Unitarianism  was  in  the  main 
a  revolt  against  the  artificiality  of  the  Latin 
view  of  the  atonement;  Universalism  against 
the  artificiality  of  a  scheme  of  future  rewards 
and  punishments  as  motives  of  conduct;  The- 
osophy  and  Christian  Science  are  bizarre 
expressions  of  the  yearning  of  the  common 
heart  for  a  God  usable,  knowable,  and  pres- 
ent. The  theory  that  religion  is  God's  per- 
sonal influence  recognizes  whatever  is  true  in 
each  of  these  tendencies,  and,  it  would  seem, 
satisfies  the  demand  which  they  polemically 
express.  Also,  in  what  we  call  orthodox  cir- 
cles, or  the  more  common  body  of  Christians, 
we  have  seen  a  gradual  dropping  of  the  old 
methods  of  preaching.  We  are  leaving  off 
the  "good  old  ways"  of  preachment.  Didac- 
tic statements  of  the  accepted  theories  of  the 
atonement  and  vivid  pictures  of  future  woe 
and  blessedness  do  not  move  men  as  they 
once  did.  Spurgeon  was  the  last  great 
preacher  of  that  class  which  used  this  mate- 
rial, and  he  has  left  no  successor.  Mr.  Moody, 
the  most  popular  evangelist  of  this  day,  dwells 
principally  upon  God's  universal  love.     The 


THE   RELIGION    OF  TO-MORROW 

common  phrases  now  are  "a  personal  Sav- 
iour," **the  life  more  abundant,"  "social  sal- 
vation," and  the  like.  We  urge  men  to  "ac- 
cept Christ,"  rather  than  to  "believe  some- 
thing." 

Now,  I  know  of  no  serious  attempt  delib- 
erately to  cast  our  present-day  views  into  an 
intelligible  system.  It  seems  therefore  neces- 
sary that  theology  should  be  readjusted,  that 
it  should  repudiate  distinctly  its  Roman  basis, 
and  set  itself  squarely  and  unmistakably  upon 
a  New  Testament  and  ante-Nicene  founda- 
tion. In  other  words,  in  our  systematic  doc- 
trine, as  well  as  in  our  practical  preaching, 
we  should  get  back  to  Jesus  and  to  Paul.  It 
is  the  purpose  of  this  essay  to  suggest  how 
this  is  to  be  done;  the  full  details  of  the  sys- 
tem I  do  not  attempt  to  work  out.  I  have 
confined  myself  merely  to  suggesting  the  true 
starting-point  of  a  reformed  theology,  and  to 
intimating  a  few  of  the  more  salient  features  of 
our  creed  that  it  harmonizes  and  makes  lucid. 

I  have  refrained  from  a  historical  form  of 
treating  this  subject,  or  from  a  critical  form, 
as  my  purpose  is  to  speak  to  the  common 
mind,  to  the  laity  as  well  as  the  clergy,  to  the 
general  common  sense  of  the  people  rather 
than  to  the  critical  experts.  As  much  as  pos- 
sible I  have  also  let  the  argument  run  upon 
its  natural  and  original  course  without  stop- 

12 


THEME 

ping  to  quote,  to  refute,  or  to  commend  this 
and  that  author,  for  I  have  always  thought 
that  this  method  adds  little  weight  to  the 
value  of  one's  own  thought,  and  that  it  evi- 
dences a  desire  to  exhibit  the  erudition  of  the 
author,  rather  than  to  assist  him  in  making 
himself  understood.  And  after  all,  common 
sense  is  little  concerned  as  to  who  has  said 
this  and  who  that,  except  when  we  refer  to 
the  Scriptures;  and,  as  Montaigne  says: 
*'There  is  more  ado  to  interpret  interpreta- 
tions than  to  interpret  things,  and  more  books 
upon  books  than  upon  all  other  subjects; 
we  do  nothing  but  comment  upon  one  an- 
other." 

While  I  think  the  gist  of  this  writing  to  be 
original,  yet  I  am  fully  aware  of  the  extent  to 
which  I  am  indebted  to  what  others  have 
written.  If  therefore  some  pick  out  this  or 
the  other  thought  herein  which  has  been  be- 
fore and  better  said  by  another,  I  will  enter 
now,  in  advance,  a  plea  of  guilty;  only  I  do 
not  believe  that  the  whole  matter  has  ever 
been  set  together  and  given  the  mutual  inter- 
dependence that  the  reader  will  find  in  these 
pages.  I  think  myself  this  essay  to  be  a 
selection  of  thoughts  and  doctrines  and  views 
that  are  "in  the  air,"  so  to  speak,  and  if  there 
be  value  in  it,  it  is  in  the  arrangement  of  the 
whole  about  the  one  central  idea. 
13 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

In  dealing  with  questions  in  any  way  per- 
taining to  religion,  one  is  upon  sacred  ground. 
The  hopes  we  have  formed  concerning  those 
we  have  "loved  long  since  and  lost  awhile," 
to  say  nothing  of  our  own  moral  surety,  are  so 
dear  that  whoever  would  shatter  them  for 
mere  iconoclastic  pleasure  would  be  like  a 
wanton  boy  destroying  treasures  of  art. 
Whether  they  be  true  or  not,  no  man  should 
lay  hands  upon  the  dreams  of  a  life  to  come 
unless  he  proposes  to  make  those  dreams 
brighter,  better,  and  more  conformable  to 
reality;  if  he  has  only  gone  so  far  as  to  dis- 
cover flaws  in  them,  and  has  no  word  that 
shall  give  them  strength,  then  he  should  keep 
silence.  It  is,  therefore,  not  only  because  I 
think  that  our  common  ideas  about  religion, 
heaven,  and  salvation  are  mixed  with  error, 
but,  also,  it  is  because  I  think  I  may  perhaps 
be  of  some  help  in  setting  them  right,  that 
this  writing  is  undertaken.  The  design  of 
this  work  is  constructive,  not  destructive. 
The  writer  has  not  merely  something  to  un- 
say; he  has  something  to  say,  or  thinks  he 
has. 

Much  of  the  explaining  that  is  done  is  to 
those  who  would  rather  not  hear  the  explana- 
tion ;  for  while  beforehand  they  may  have  only 
imagined  they  knew,  afterward  they  are  sure 
they  do  not  know.  But  my  trust  is  that, 
H 


THEME 

because  certain  things  seem  so  lambent  to  me, 
I  can  illuminate  them  for  others. 

Practically,  really,  I  believe  the  outline  of 
theology  here  indicated  is  that  which  is  in 
common  use  by  most  of  the  evangelical  clergy 
of  to-day.  They  have  quietly  and  of  necessity 
taken  these  views,  and  are  working  with  them. 
But  we  still  cling,  in  our  text-books  and  sem- 
inaries, to  the  old  formulas;  we  still  theoreti- 
cally defend  the  antiquated  phrases  of  the 
Latin  church,  while  actually  we  have  left 
them  and  have  made  for  ourselves  new  and 
better.  Most  of  our  preaching  nowadays  is 
of  a  personal,  living,  immanent  God-Saviour, 
and  not  of  a  mechanical  plan-salvation.  The 
aim  of  this  essay  is  to  indicate  a  way  in  which 
our  theoretic  theology  may  be  made  to  con- 
form to  our  factual  theology. 

First  of  all,  we  are  to  consider  the  object 
and  scope  of  God's  personal  influence;  it  is  to 
change  mankind  from  its  sinful  condition  into 
a  condition  called  "the  kingdom  of  heaven"; 
not  primarily  to  prepare  us  for  another  world, 
but  to  prepare  us  for  right  life  here  and  here- 
after, here  or  anywhere.     (Chapter  II.) 

The  agency  by  which  this  change  is  to  be 
wrought  in  the  race  is  not  rewards  and  pun- 
ishments, a  motive  explicitly  superseded,  but 
God's  personal  influence.     (Chapter  III.) 

What  is  this  change  that  is  to  take  place  in 
15 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

us  to  make  us  fit  citizens  of  God's  kingdom? 
It  is  a  change  wrought  by  the  presence  of  the 
immanent  God  upon  our  character.  It  is  the 
same  kind  of  a  change,  differing  only  in  de- 
gree, that  is  effected  in  us  when  we  come 
under  the  personal  influence  of  a  strong,  noble 
man,  for  man  is  a  spirit  as  well  as  God  is, 
and  he  is  a  son  of  God.  The  Eternal  Life, 
therefore,  is  God's  life,  which  takes  hold  of  us 
and  assimilates  us  to  itself  according  to  the 
known  laws  of  personal  influence.  (Chapter  IV.) 

God's  living  personality  being  the  imme- 
diate and  chief  agency  in  our  regeneration,  it 
is  not  the  Christ  who  died,  but  the  Christ  who 
died  and  rose  again,  that  is  the  central  figure 
of  Christian  theology.  Any  system  of  the- 
ology is  deficient  which  represents  salvation  as 
consisting  in  the  deliverance  of  man  from  the 
consequences  of  his  sin  by  a  dead  Christ, 
rather  than  a  deliverance  of  man  from  sinful- 
ness itself  by  the  risen  and  now  immanent 
Christ.      (Chapter  V.) 

The  terms  used  by  the  new  Testament  writ- 
ers in  describing  the  operation  of  the  new 
religion  are  only  explainable  by  the  theory  of 
that  religion  being  God's  personal  influence. 
Thus,  grace  is  God's  influence,  faith  our 
reception  of  it,  the  Gospel  the  news  of  it,  and 
righteousness  the  consequence  of  it.  (Chap- 
ter VI.) 

i6 


THEME 

The  atonement,  considered  as  a  mere 
scheme,  in  and  by  itself,  is  of  no  avail  to  us, 
except  as  a  sort  of  superstitious  allaying  of 
the  fear  of  punishment.  We  are  saved  by 
God  Himself;  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ  was 
the  supreme  revelation  of  the  character  of 
God;  so  vital  is  that  conception  of  God  which 
we  only  get  by  Christ's  death  that  Jewish 
ritualism  for  centuries  had  been  preparing  the 
mind  of  the  world  to  understand  it;  the  Cross 
thus  becomes  the  great  sign  and  vehicle  of  the 
personal  influence  of  God  upon  men.  (Chap- 
ter vn.) 

Christianity  is  built  upon  a  personality,  not 
upon  dogma.  Personality  is  the  real  edifice; 
dogma  the  scaffolding.  Personality  is  the 
balance  of  doctrine.     (Chapter  VIII.) 

The  salvation  of  the  world  of  spirits  is  com- 
ing as  came  the  evolution  of  matter,  by  the 
assimilation  of  all  things  and  all  souls  unto 
God.  The  personal  influence  theory  explains 
the  corruptions  of  Christianity.    (Chapter  IX.) 

Personal  influence  is  the  force  Christ  care- 
fully selected  as  the  means  by  which  the  whole 
world  is  to  be  saved.  It  is  shown  how  per- 
sonal influence  alone  can  do  so  great  a  work. 
(Chapter  X.) 

The  sorrows  of  the  wicked  are  explainable 
only   upon   the   theory    that  the    sole    saving 
power  is  the  personal  influence  of  God.     "Last 
17 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

things"  are  mainly  speculative  and  not  essen- 
tial to  the  purpose  of  revelation.  (Chapter 
XI.) 

A  form  of  thought,  confessedly  theoretical, 
is  suggested  concerning  the  future  life;  as  the 
forms  given  by  medieval  writers,  equally  the- 
oretical, have  lost  their  utility  because  of  our 
increased  knowledge  of  the  universe.  (Chap- 
ter XII.) 

The  whole  is  intended  to  prove  that  the 
theory  that  religion  is  the  personal  influence 
of  God  will  be  the  recognized  fundamental 
truth  of  the  religion  of  to-morrow.  For, 
based  upon  this  theory,  theology  cannot  decay 
but  must  grow  and  widen  with  the  current  of 
the  world's  intellectual  and  ethical  progress. 


i8 


SUGGESTIONS 

The  history  of  the  world  is  its  slow  assimilation  to 

God. 

The  proof  of  inspiration  is  the  divine  personality 
within  the  Book. 

The  personal  influence  theory  does  not  explain  all 
mysteries,  but  it  brings  us  to  see  what  are  the  true 
mysteries,  God  and  Man,  and  what  are  the  false,  the 
machinery  of  ecclesiastical  speculation  and  the  par- 
adoxes of  mediaevalism. 

When  theology  is  prosecuted  as  a  study  of  the 
nature  and  efifects  of  the  personal  influence  of  God  it 
is  transformed  as  if  from  the  Ptolemaic  to  the  Coperni- 
can  theory,  from  Alchemy  to  Chemistry. 

Religion  itself  has  made  wonderful  progress  while 
the  science  of  religion  has  sunk  into  disrepute. 

Theology  should  not  be  a  science  of  dogma,  as  is 
the  Law;  but  a  science  of  fact,  as  are  the  natural 
sciences. 

The  apostles  have  been  held  as  our  Blackstones 
and  Chittys;  we  are  to  consider  them  as  our  Newtons 
and  Keplers. 

There  is  something  wrong  with  a  theology  that  is 
saved  from  intellectual  contempt  only  by  respect  for 
its  subject  matter. 

The  religion  of  to-morrow  is  the  religion  of  the 
early  Greek  Christian  fathers. 

The  heresies  of  an  age  best  indicate  its  religious 
drift. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE   KINGDOM   OF   HEAVEN 

The  Purpose  of  God's  Personal  Influence  is  Trans- 
formation, not  Transportation. 


"  Ah,  when  shall  all  men's  good 
Be  each  man's  rule,  and  universal  peace 
Lie  like  a  shaft  of  light  across  the  land, 
And  like  a  lane  of  beams  across  the  sea, 
Thro'  all  the  circle  of  the  golden  year? " 

Tennyson,  The  Golden  Year, 

"Christianity  is  making  for  this  world  a  new 
heaven,  and  out  of  that  a  new  earth.  When  we  see 
new  heavens,  then  we  soon  see  new  earth.  We  may 
say  that  the  world  has  been  made  altogether  new, 
and  life  wholly  different,  by  the  simple  sight  of  God 
as  the  universal  Father."— Clarke,  Common  Sense  in 
Religion,  p.  i66. 

"The  habit  of  adjourning  our  higher  hopes  from 
this  world  to  the  next  has  greatly  interfered  with  their 
fulfillment.  But  this  habit  is  manifestly  giving  wav, 
partly  from  the  growing  interest  in  public  life  and 
philanthropic  schemes,  partly  through  a  better  under- 
standing of  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  It  seems 
clear  that  the  object  of  the  life  disclosed  in  the  Scrip- 
tures is  not  merely  to  save  individuals,  but  to  train 
first  one  nation  and  then  mankind  to  become  the  city 
of  God."— Freemantle,  The  World  as  the  Subject  of 
Redemption,''  p.  313. 

"Whatever  makes  men  good  Christians  makes 
them  good  citizens."— Webster,  Speech  at  Plymouth, 
December  22,  1820. 

"  The  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  outward 
shew;  neither  shall  they  say,  Lo  here!  or,  lo  there!  for, 
behold,  the  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you."— Jesus, 
Luke  xvii.  2021. 


CHAPTER   II 

God  is  and  always  has  been  immanent  in 
the  world.  The  best  of  men  have  always  sus- 
pected His  presence.  Polytheism  was  close 
to  the  truth  ;^  it  failed  because  it  missed  the 
personality  of  God.  Judaism  grasped  the 
idea  of  His  personality,  but  was  faulty  in  that 
it  tended  to  limit  Him  and  to  make  Him  to  be 
a  local  and  national  deity.^  God  has  been  in 
every  age  and  race,  brooding  over  His  human 
children,  slowly  lifting  them  up  by  the  influ- 
ence of  His  personality,  into  a  higher  life.  It 
is  immaterial  to  this  argument  whether  we 
say  that  man  fell  or  that  he  developed  out  of 
the  beast;  in  either  case  he  has  been  a  miser- 
able, beastly  character  as  far  back  as  history 
and  tradition  shed  their  light.  But  there  has 
been  some  force  at  work  changing  him  gradu- 
ally for  the  better.  This  force  has  operated 
slowly,  with  many  reverses,  often  appearing 
to  go  backward,  yet,  as  the  student  of  history 
knows,    steadily  gaining  ground.       Wherever 

^  "Whom  therefore  ye  ignorantly  worship,  Him  declare  I  unto 
you.'' — Paul's  Address  to  the  Athenians,  Acts  xvii.  23. 

'  "The  hour  cometh  when  ye  shall  neither  in  this  mountain, 
nor  yet  at  Jerusalem,  worship  the  Father.  God  is  a  Spirit." — 
Jesus  to  the  Woman  of  Samaria,  John  iv.  21,  24. 

23 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

there   were   men   there  was  this  power    that 
makes   for   righteousness.       In    some    cases, 
however,  it  worked  more  successfully  than  in 
others,  for  reasons  unessential  to  our  present 
discussion.     It  produced  a  wondrous  civiliza- 
tion in  Greece,  a  great  religious  conviction  in 
the  Orient,   an  exalted   morality  among    the 
Jews.     It  is    God.     The   same   God  is  bring- 
ing all   men   everywhere   up   to   the   likeness 
of  Himself  by  the  influence  of   His   person- 
ality.    The  Jews  were  nearer  the  truth  than 
the  others  because  they  apprehended  the  most 
important    fact    concerning    this    force,    its 
personality;  therefore  it  is  said:     "Salvation 
is  of  the  Jews.  "^     But  Jews  and  all  failed  be- 
cause  there   was    something   lacking.       That 
something  was  a  clear,  intelligible  knowledge 
of    Deity   as   a  person  interested    in  helping 
every  son  of  man.     In  the  course    of    time, 
when  the  social  and  intellectual  progress  of 
the  world  was  sufficiently  developed  so  that 
mankind  could,   in    some    accurate   measure, 
understand  Him,   God  embodied  Himself  in 
human  flesh  and  spirit  and  came  into  human- 
ity as  the  Christ.^     Thus  He  for  all  time  im- 
pressed the  notion  of  His  personality   upon 
the  race.     But  lest  this  person  be  localized, 
and  thus  the  equally  important  thought  of  His 
immanence  be  lost  sight  of,   Christ  departed 
*  John  iv.  22.  '  Heb.  i.  1-4. 

24 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   HEAVEN 

as  a  local  figure  and  returned  again  as  a  Holy 
Ghost.^  Thus  we  have  the  complete  revela- 
tion of  God  as  the  Trinity;  that  is,  as  the 
Father  He  is  the  infinitely  great  Unknown 
and  Unknowable  Whom  no  man  hath  seen  at 
any  time;  as  the  Christ  He  is  knowable  and 
definite  and  thus  able  to  make  a  distinct  im- 
pression upon  men;  and  as  the  Holy  Spirit 
He  is  personally  present  touching  and  mold 
ing  all. 

Now  what  is  it  that  God  wants  to  do  among 
men?  It  is  to  alter  their  natures  until  they 
become  like  Himself.  A  humanity  thus 
altered  constitutes  ''the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
To  form  this  kingdom  was  the  avowed  inten- 
tion of  Jesus.  One  becomes  a  member  of 
this  realm  not  by  any  effort  of  his  own  except 
as  that  effort  allows  God's  personality  to  influ- 
ence him.  When  one  enters  upon  a  life  of 
communion  with  God  he  is  changed  by  the 
strong  effect  of  God's  character  upon  him  to 
become  like  Christ.  He  is  then  set  in  an 
order  of  progress,  his  nature  is  then  so  re- 
formed, that  he  is  said  to  have  a  new  life — 
eternal  life.^  "This  is  life  eternal — to  know 
God."' 

And  now  we  come  into  conflict  with  current 
popular  theology.     To  most  men   what  does 

*  "  If  I  go  not  away  the  Comforter  will  not  come."— John  xvi.  7. 
«  "  And  I  will  give  unto  them  eternal  life."— John  x.  28. 
^  John  xvii.  3. 

25 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

the  word  "Eternal  Life"  mean?  It  may  not 
be  an  extreme  statement  to  say  that  to  very 
many  it  has  no  practical,  present  meaning 
except  as  something  that  we,  before  death, 
must  prepare  for.  Although  a  few  books  and 
preachers  of  the  more  spiritual  sort  speak  of 
it  as  a  present  possession,  we  usually  look 
upon  such  talk  as  a  kind  of  enthusiasm,  while 
we  think  in  reality  eternal  life  actually  begins 
at  the  close  of  this  mortal  life.  It  is  reserved 
for  true  Christians  as  a  happy  reward  after 
death.  Eternity  has  its  hither  end  at  the 
grave;  immortality  begins  where  mortality 
ends.  We  urge  sinners  to  repent  and  believe 
so  they  may  "at  last  find  a  home  in  heaven." 
We  sing: 

"  O  you  must  be  a  lover  of  the  Lord 
Or  you  can't  go  to  heaven  when  you  die." 

Popular  theology  is  correct  in  identifying 
eternal  life  and  heaven:  they  are  one  and  the 
same  thing.  But  neither  of  them  depends 
upon  place.  The  doctrine  of  heaven  as  a 
place  set  before  us  as  a  chief  inducement  is 
wholly  unscriptural.  The  Bible  does  not 
teach  that  this  sublunary  existence  is  a  "state 
of  probation,"  the  sole  purpose  of  which  is 
to  determine  into  which  of  the  two  future 
cities,  heaven  or  hell,  we  are  to  go,  "accord- 
ing to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body."  Christ 
26 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   HEAVEN 

used  no  such  motive  as  dominant,  nor  sanc- 
tioned it.  Heaven  is  something  more  than  a 
city  in  which  all  the  righteous  are  gathered, 
and  at  whose  gates  Saint  Peter  stands  hold- 
ing the  keys.  Eternal  life  is  not  a  residence 
apportioned  to  those  whose  accounts  balance 
with  a  credit  upon  the  right  side;  the  whole 
theory  of  balancing  accounts  is  alien  to  the 
spirit  of  the  Gospel.  Heaven  is  not  an  ever- 
lasting pleasure-ground  whither  those  go  who 
have  received  a  favorable  verdict  at  a  great 
court-room  scene  called  "The  Day  of  Judg- 
ment." It  is  not  a  land  separated  from  earth 
by  the  "River  Jordan,"  in  whose  dark  waves 
all  perish  in  attempting  to  cross  unless  they 
have  been  believers.  There  is  indeed  an  ele- 
ment of  poetic  truth  in  all  these  figures,  but 
as  positive  doctrines  they  are  literalistic  con- 
structions of  the  scattered  imagery  of  the 
Bible.  To  postulate  as  dogmatic  fact  what 
was  revealed  as  mere  prophetic  coloring  is  to 
be  overwise.^ 

»  The  idea  of  Jesus  was  to  magnify  this  earthly  life  by  showing 
how  sublime  and  God-like  it  might  be  made;  the  tendency  ol 
mediaeval  theology  has  been  to  magnify  this  life  the  rather  by  em- 
phasizing  the  ftiiure  consequences  dependent  upon  our  use  of  it. 
While  both  seem  to  come  to  the  same  thing,  it  will  be  readily 
seen  that  the  influence  of  the  former  idea  as  a  central  doctrine 
would  be  to  make  life  large,  full,  and  wholesome,  and  the  influence 
of  the  latter  as  a  central  idea  would  tend  (as  we  know  it  /las 
tended)  to  make  life  despicable,  empty,  and  morbid. 

In  a  nutshell,  the  matter  thus  lies:  Jesus'  notion  was  for  man 
to  secure  future  bliss  by  concentrating  his  thought  upon  present 
godliness;  the  Latin  system  has  been  for  man  to  secure  present 
godliness  by  concentrating  his  thought  upon  future  bliss.  Al- 
though apparently  the  same,  one  process  is  the  reverse  of  the 
other.    One  makes  monks,  the  other  makes  men. 

27 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

The  Bible  contains  no  preachment  about 
**getting  to  heaven"  as  the  object  of  life. 
Not  to  get  us  into  heaven,  but  to  get  heaven 
into  us,  is  the  theme  of  Jesus.  Heaven,  with 
Him,  is  a  condition  and  not  a  place.  The 
very  first  text  of  His  ministry  opposed  the 
theory  of  a  far-off  heaven,  for  he  came  pro- 
claiming: *' Repent,  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  at  hand.  "^  Both  He  and  His  dis- 
ciples urged  men  to  accept  eternal  life  right 
then  and  there,  and  never  once  took  the  tenor 
of  advising  or  warning  men  so  to  act  that  they 
might  enter  into  a  blessed  place  after  death 
only. 

We  do  not  wonder  at  the  tenacity  of  this 
place  idea,  however.  It  is  an  old  delusion  of 
men  to  imagine  that  if  they  can  but  get  into 
other  surroundings,  have  different  clothes, 
houses,  means,  and  relatives,  go  to  live  in 
another  city  or  country,  or  attain  unto  new 
skies,  new  soil,  or  new  neighbors,  then  they 
shall  be  content.  But  even  the  heathen 
philosophers  knew  better  than  this;  they  knew 
that  happiness  comes  from  within  and  does 
not  depend  upon  outward  circumstances;  and 
surely  the  Son  of  God  knew  more  than  they; 
He  would  not  have  made  a  mistake  that  even 
Epictetus  and  Socrates  avoided.^     So  He  con- 

*  Matt.  iv.  17. 

'  "  In  a  word,  neither  death,  nor  exile,  nor  pain,  nor  anything 
of  this  kind  is  the  real  cause  of  our  doing  or  not  doing  any  action, 

28 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   HEAVEN 

demned  the  teaching  that  one's  character  can 
be  soiled  by  "that  which  entereth  into  him," 
and  declared  that  it  is  *'that  which  cometh 
out  of  man,"  from  his  heart,  that  alone  can 
taint  the  soul.^  A  man  without  heaven  in  him 
would  be  wretched  in  the  golden  streets  and 
smitten  with  ennui  among  the  choiring  angels; 
the  water  of  life  would  not  quench  his  thirst, 
neither  would  the  fruit  of  the  healing  tree 
satisfy  his  desires,  nor  would  the  shining  faces 
of  the  holy  ones  make  him  glad.^  And  a  man 
having  "Christ  formed  within"  could  walk 
around  in  the  abode  of  the  lost  like  the  Hebrew 
children  in  the  fiery  furnace;  the  flame  would 
not  singe  a  hair  of  his  head.  Even  if  sent  to 
perdition  the  joy  of  such  a  man  would  remain 
with  him,  for  "what  shall  separate  us  from 
the  love  of  God?" 

"  While  blest  with  a  sense  of  His  love 
A  palace  a  toy  would  appear; 
And  prisons  would  palaces  prove 

If  Jesus  would  dwell  with  me  there."  * 

We  may  think  that  if  we  can  get  away  from 
the  hindrances  of  our  present  lot,   from  our 

but  our  inward  opinions  and  principles."— Epictetus,  Discourses, 
ch.  xi. 

"  One  ought  to  seek  out  virtue  for  its  own  sake,  without  being 
influenced  by  fear  or  hope,  or  by  any  external  influence.  More- 
over, in  that  does  happiness  consist."    Zeno. 

"  He  is  happiest  who  wants  the  fewest  things."    Socrates. 

'  Matt.  XV.  II. 

»  "Myself  am  hell."   Milton  (see  line  73  etseq.,  Paradise  Lost). 

'  Charles  Wesley. 

29 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

dull  drudgery,  our  temptations,  and  our  worri- 
ments,  and  fly  to  a  land  where  all  is  delight- 
ful, we  would  be  peaceful  and  perfect;  but 
unfortunately  we  have  left  out  of  the  enu- 
meration of  our  enemies  the  greatest  one  of 
all — ourselves;  and  even  in  a  land  of  angels 
we  cannot  escape  ourselves.  And,  no  matter 
what  our  condition,  if  we  let  the  Holy  Spirit 
into  our  heart  we  can  rise  to  walk  in  heavenly 
life  with  Christ/ 

This  heaven-place  error  is  inground  into  us. 
Almost  all  other  reformers  have  hoped  to 
better  the  world  by  altering  man's  environ- 
ment. They  have  striven  for  improved  sys- 
tems of  government,  of  taxation,  of  money, 
and  of  the  distribution  of  property,  and  have 
fondly  pictured  the  Utopias  that  would  be 
attained  could  their  respective  schemes  but  be 
successful.  But  Jesus  showed  His  divine  wis- 
dom by  disdaining  all  such  makeshifts.  When 
He  came  to  save  men  from  their  wretchedness 
He  did  not  esteem  it  worth  while  to  attack 
slavery,  tyranny,  malfeasance  in  office,  false 
forms  of  government,  or  any  such  thing.  He 
penetrated  at  once  by  the  intuition  of  wisdom 
to  the  cause  of  all  these  wrongs;  He  was  not 
led  astray  by  symptoms,  but  went  to  the  seat 
of  the  disease.  He  addressed  Himself  to  the 
task  of  reforming  men's  h.earts,^airns,  desires, 

»  Phil.  iv.  II.    "  In  whatsoever  state    .    .    .    CQi^itent," 
30 


THE    KINGDOM    OF   HEAVEN 

and  views.  It  was  a  gigantic  undertaking, 
one  that  none  ever  before  had  dared  seriously 
attempt,  and  one  which  not  all  of  His  follow- 
ers have  thoroughly  believed  in  since.  But 
after  all  we  are  beginning  to  see  that  it  is  the 
only  way  substantial  progress  has  ever  been 
effected.  No  advance  in  human  conditions 
has  ever  been  permanent  that  has  not  been  an 
advance  of  mankind  itself.  The  only  stable 
improvement  in  human  affairs  has  been  such 
as  has  followed  naturally  from  improvement 
in  humanity. 

A  great  many  Christians  still  do  not  believe 
in  Christ's  method.  They  regard  the  world 
as  hopelessly  lost.  All  God  can  do  is  to  save 
a  few  elect  souls  from  the  wreck.  They  are 
appalled  and  blinded  by  the  stupendous  power 
of  evil.  They  do  not  believe  that  the  gentle, 
permeating  force  of  the  Holy  Spirit  will  ever 
transform  the  world  by  His  present  methods, 
and  their  only  hope  is  some  miraculous  inter- 
ference of  God  to  burn  up  the  wicked  and 
rescue  the  saints.  The  "second  advent" 
theories  are  a  discounting  of  the  efficacy  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  to  save  the  world;  they  go 
upon  the  assumption  that  the  best  He  can  do 
is  to  save  a  few,  but  to  redeem  a  whole  race 
is  too  much  for  Him.  But  patiently  and 
quietly  the  Christ  is  lifting  all  mankind  out  of 
darkness  into  light.  When  He  is  through 
31 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

with  His  work  it  will  be  done,  done  right  and 
not  needing  to  be  done  over  again.^  God's 
plan  is  to  make  heaven  for  men,  not  by  taking 
them  away  from  the  earth  but  by  transforming 
them  upon  the  earth. ^  He  is  to  persevere 
until  "all  shall  know  Him  from  the  least  to 
the  greatest,"^  until  "His  people  shall  be  all 
holy."*  Then  upon  this  globe  we  shall  see 
the  fulfilment  of  the  promise,  "Behold,  I 
make  all  things  new"  ;^  we  shall  indeed  have 
"a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth.  "^  For  there 
is  nothing  wrong  with  our  planet  but  ipan, 
and  other  things  only  as  they  are  affected  by 
him.  When  this  race  has  been  changed,  as  it 
will  be,  earth  itself  will  be  as  much  a  heaven 
as  are  those  other  places  to  which  souls  go 
after  death.  "For  the  earnest  expectation  of 
the  creature  (ktisis,  the  whole  created  world) 
waiteth  for  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of 
God, "^  wrote  Paul;  that  is  to  say,  a  trans- 
figured humanity  will  transfigure  its  environ- 
ment. Christ  came  not  to  condemn  the  world 
but  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil  in  it,  to 

'  Isa.  liii.  II.  "  He  shall  see  of  the  travail  of  His  soul,  and 
shall  be  satisfied." 

'  "  1  pray  not  that  Thou  shouldst  take  them  out  of  the  world, 
but  that  Thou  shouldst  keep  them  from  the  evil."    John  xvii.  15. 

3  Heb.  viii.  11. 

*  "  Thy  people  shall  be  all  righteous."    Isa.  Ix.  21. 
"  Rev.  xxi.  5. 

*  Rev.  xxi.  I. 

*  Rom.  viii.  19. 

32 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   HEAVEN 

turn  it  into  a  paradise,  to  make  the  lion  and 
the  lamb  lie  down  together,  to  stop  war,  to 
wipe  away  all  tears,  to  abolish  disease,  so  that 
*'none  shall  any  more  say,  I  am  sick";^  and 
to  do  this,  not  by  theatric  interferences,  but 
by  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit,  by  the 
transforming  influence  of  His  own  personality 
upon  the  disposition  of  humanity.  Paul 
grasped  this  thought  when  he  exclaimed: 
**We  know  that  the  whole  creation  groaneth 
and  travaileth  in  pain  together  until  now, '"^ 
that  is,  that  the  appearance  of  the  Gospel  of 
the  Son  of  God  in  the  world  is  the  beginning 
of  the  end  of  all  evil.  If  there  is  anything 
hurtful  upon  earth  it  is  because  of  man,  as  it 
is  intimated  in  the  story  of  Adam  and  Eve. 
If  there  are  deserts,  thorns,  bleak  moors,  and 
destructive  storms,  they  are  merely  the  reflec- 
tion of  the  moral  state  of  man,  doubtless 
designed  by  the  Creator  to  show  him  in  out- 
ward parable  and  parallel  his  inward  soul,  as 
all  speech  and  ideas  are  formed  upon  the 
analogies  of  nature  f  and  when  man  shall 
have  been  made  new,  when  the  human  stock 
shall  have  been  regenerated,  then  there  shall 
be  nothing  that  may  hurt  or  destroy  in  all  the 
earth,  and  this  planet  shall  be  one  of  the 
**many  mansions"  swinging  musically  in  '*the 

*  Isa.  xxxiii.  24.   See  also  Isa.  xxv.,  xxxv.  and  Iv.,  Rev.  xxi.,  etc. 

•  Rom.  viii.  22. 

'  See  Bushnell:    "I^Iqrfl  Usesof.D^^^^ 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

heavens."^     The  divine  program  is  not  trans- 
portation but  transfiguration. 

The  complete  salvation  of  man  having  been 
removed  beyond  the  grave,  it  is  necessary 
for  common  theology  to  make  another  wrong 
proposition,  namely,  that  there  is  some  sort  of 
moral  efficacy  in  dieath.  We  must  expect,  it 
is  held,  to  spend  our  days  here  in  worry  and 
sin,  but  if  we  put  our  trust  in  God,  in  some 
way  death  will  make  us  all  right.  Death  is 
thus  popularly  held  to  have  more  power  to 
renew  the  soul  than  has  the  Christ.  The 
latter  can  only  save  us  from  hell,  and  write 
our  names  in  the  book  of  life  so  we  can  enter 
heaven,  but  to  hold  that  He  can  make  us 
heavenly  creatures  here — that  is  fanaticism. 
Although  we  are  saved  by  Him,  that  only 
means  we  are  assured  of  a  home  in  glory, 
and  we  still  must  go  on  sinning  and  fretting 
and  quarreling  till  ^^ death  shall  set  us  free."^ 
Jesus  can  only  remit  the  penalty  of  our  sins;  it 
is  all-potent  death  that  shall  break  \.\\t  power 
of  sin  in  us.  If  Christ  is  said  to  cleanse  us, 
that  is  only  theoretically;    for  death   is   the 

'  John  xiv.  2. 

«  "  So  when  my  latest  breath 

Shall  rend  the  veil  in  twain, 
By  death  I  shall  escape  from  death 
And  life  eternal  gain."— James  Montgomery. 
The  hymns  of  the  church,  however,  are  remarkably  free  from 
ascribing  any  direct  moral  efficacy  to  death.    The  above  instance 
is  not  a  fair  sample.    The  idea  of  death's  moral  value  abides 
rather  as  a  general  impression  among  Christians,  than  as  a  speci- 
fically taught  doctrine. 

34 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   HEAVEN       . 

real  cleanser.  We  are  born  again  theolog- 
ically at  conversion,  but  we  do  not  become 
really  new  creatures  until  death  does  its  work. 
In  other  words,  deaths  not  Jesus^  is  to  gain 
heaven  for  us! 

Now,  where  in  the  Bible,  is  any  such 
theory?  Are  the  redeemed  in  glory  singing: 
"Glory  to  death  which  hath  washed  us?"^ 
The  fact  is  that  in  the  New  Testament  death 
has  no  moral  force  whatsoever.  Christ  abol- 
ished death. '^  It  is  henceforth  nothing.  It  is 
merely  a  milestone  of  life.  It  will  change  the 
body^  but  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  it  will 
in  any  degree  change  the  character.  It  will 
enable  us  to  put  on  incorruption  but  not  to 
put  in  incorruption.  There  is  positively  not 
one  intimation  in  the  Scriptures  that  one  will 
arise  from  the  grave  with  any  better  character 
or  disposition  than  that  which  he  had  when 
he  lay  down  in  the  grave.  If  heaven  never 
gets  into  you  here  there  is  no  ground  to  hope 
you  will  get  into  it  hereafter.^ 

'  Rev.  i.  5.    "  Unto  Him,  etc.,  be  glory." 

*  "Our  Saviour  hath  abolished  death."  2  Tim.  i.  10.  i  Cor. 
XV.  54:  **  Death  is  swallowed  up  in  victory."  iCor.  xv.  26:  "As 
a  last  enemy  is  death  done  away."  Meyer's  translation.  Beet 
gives :  "  As  a  last  enemy  death  is  brought  to  naught."  The  verb 
at  any  rate  is  present,  not  future.  "  Not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but 
the  God  of  the  living."     Mark  xii.  27. 

'"Christianity  does  not  convince  us  of  immortality  by  any 
process  of  argument  — it  makes  us  believe  in  immortal  life  by 
(juickening  all  the  immortal  powers  of  the  soul.  It  makes  us  live 
in  the  immortal  part,  and  not  the  mortal  part  of  our  being;  in  the 
spirit,  not  in  the  flesh.  This  is  the  real  argument  of  eternal  life,— 
that  we  are  alive  now.  The  more  of  present  life  we  have  the  more 
shall  we  believe  in  the  future."— James  Freeman  Clarke,  "  Com- 
mon Sense  in  Religion,"  p.  197. 

35 


V 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

The  word  "saved"  has  also  been  corrupted 
from  its  true  signification.  We  make  much 
of  this  term  in  revival  meetings  and  current 
evangelical  preaching.  Some  have  the  right 
apprehension  of  it,  but  with  most  of  us  it  is 
mixed  with  a  false  quantity.  "Saved,"  in  the 
Bible,  means  rescued  from  sin,  and  is  never 
narrowly  confined  to  mean  made  sure  of 
escaping  punishment.  But  how  often  do  we 
hear  prayers  that  God  will  "finally  save  us  in 
heaven,"  "at  last  save  us,"  "forgive  us  now 
and  in  death  save  us, "  and  the  like?  ^  Whereas, 
if  there  is  saving  to  be  done  it  is  now  or  never, 
and  we  should  pray  to  be  saved  day  by  day.^ 
What  is  to  happen  at  death  is  not  in  this  day 
our  concern;  God  will  take  care  of  us  then; 
but  the  only  salvation  that  should  be  our  care 
is  a  present  salvation  from  baseness  and  unto 
Christliness.  It  is  not  for  us  to  worry  about 
where  we  are  going  when  we  die,  nor  to  be  a 
Christian  primarily  to  secure  ourselves  from 
woe  after  death.  The  life  in  Christ  is  to  be 
preached  and  exemplified  by  Christians,  as  so 
full,  so  joyous,  so  complete,  that  the  world 
shall  turn  to  it  as  a  thing  to  be  desired.  When 
Christians  are  no  happier  nor  holier  than  good 
average  non-Christians,  it  is  useless  to  try  to 
cozen  men  into  the  church   by   promises   of 

*  The  Lord's  Prayer,  the  divine  model,  has  only  one  reference 
to  any  salvation,  that  is,  "and  deliver  us  from  evil." 
'  "  Behold,  now  is  the  day  of  salvation."    2  Cor.  vi.  2. 

36 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   HEAVEN 

future  bliss,  or  to  scare  them  into  the  church 
by  bogies  of  future  scenes  of  torment.  Christ 
indicated  the  program  of  His  church's  vic- 
tory; *'And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all 
men  unto  me.  "^  The  Gospel's  triumph  waits 
for  saved  men  and  women  to  win  the  world; 
saved  not  so  much  from  perdition  as  saved 
from  "sensuality,  selfishness,  hardness,  greed, 
envy,  jealousy,  and  all  the  weak  and  beggarly 
elements  of  common  life;  saved  unto  purity, 
thoughtfulness,  courtesy,  kindness,  long-suf- 
fering, love,  joy,  peace,  hope;  in  short,  saved 
to  become  U^aveii-holders,  not  mere  heaven- 
seekers. 

The  fear  of  death  is  nothing  more  than  a 
superstition,^  and  Christ  and  His  apostles 
never  stooped  to  use  such,  although  it  has 
always  been  the  policy  of  the  mistaken  church 
to  deal  tenderly  with  a  superstition  when  it 
seems  advantageous.  Bacon  says:  '*Men 
fear  death  as  children  fear  to  go  into  the 
dark,  and  as  that  natural  fear  of  children  is 
increased  with  tales,  so  is  the  other."  It 
seems  so  right  to  induce  one  to  come  to  Christ 
by  revealing  to  him  the  terrors  of  the  penal- 

*  John  xii.  32. 

^  "  For  God  hath  not  given  us  the  spirit  of  fear;  but  of  power, 
and  of  love,  and  of  a  sound  mind."''  2  fim.  i.  7.  Not  only  is  fear 
taken  away  from  believers,  but  the  energizing  "  spirit  of  the 
Gospel"  is  not  a  "  spirit  of  fear."  "  Christ  came  to  deliver  them 
who  through  fear  of  death  were  all  their  lifetime  subject  to  bond- 
age."   Heb.  ii.  15. 

37 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

ties  beyond  death,  that  we  would  hear  a  great 
outcry  against  any  one  who  would  condemn 
this  policy.  And  yet  by  such  preaching  we 
have  let  down  the  whole  tone  of  the  Gospel, 
we  have  descended  to  the  level  of  the  heathen 
priests  and  medicine-men,  and  we  have  for- 
feited the  respect  of  the  sound  sense  and  true 
culture  of  the  world.  The  New  Testament 
employs  this  motive  sparingly.  When  Christ 
preached  to  the  common  folk  did  He  begin  or 
end  by  threats  of  perdition?  No:  His  first 
sermon  was  **Blessed,  blessed,  blessed,"  a 
picture  of  the  higher,  better  life  He  was  to 
make  possible  for  men.  The  young  Messiah 
came  preaching:  "Repent,  for  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  at  hand,"  and  not  "Repent,  or 
the  demons  will  get  you  by  and  by."  When 
He  called  His  disciples  He  said:  "Follow 
Me!"  and  He  did  not  first  reveal  to  them  the 
awful  consequences  of  their  sin.  Now  read 
carefully  over  all  the  places  where  He  speaks 
of  retribution,  such  as  the  parables  of  Dives, 
the  Ten  Virgins,  the  Last  Judgment,  and  the 
like,  and  you  will  find  that  almost  all  these 
were  directed  against  the  scribes  and  Phari- 
sees. He  did  not  preach  to  "sinners,"  so- 
called,  by  appealing  to  fear,  but  thus  to  the 
self-righteous.  And  it  is  a  question  whether 
the  scenes  of  retributive  justice  He  portrayed 
in  these  illustrative  stories  are  didactic  state- 
38 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   HEAVEN 

merits  of  what  is  to  take  place  after  death,  so 
much  as  they  are  visions  of  the  ruin  and 
contumely  that  invariably  come  to  Pharisaic 
obstinacy  and  hypocrisy,  whether  in  this  world 
or  in  the  next.  It  is  an  arbitrary  assumption 
to  hold  that  all  these  passages  refer  to  the 
final  Day  of  Judgment.  Christ  certainly  did 
reveal  the  misery  of  the  wicked,  but  this  was 
not  the  tone  nor  the  motive  element  in  His 
Gospel. 

Then  examine  the  preaching  of  the  apostles. 
Did  they  get  their  great  power  of  conviction 
by  heralding  damnation  after  death  to  all  who 
refused  to  hear?  Fortunately  the  book  of 
Acts  gives  us  many  samples  of  early  sermons. 
Peter  preached  on  one  occasion,  and  many 
were  pricked  to  the  heart  and  repented  and 
were  saved.  What  was  it  he  said  that  caused 
this?  It  was  not  any  threat  he  made,  but  it 
was  that  he  held  up  before  them  the  Lord 
Jesus,  the  Man  who  went  about  doing  good, 
whom  they  with  impious  hands  had  slain.  It 
was  that  that  smote  them.^  And  so  always 
true  conviction  of  sin  comes  by  preaching  Christy 
while  it  is  only  a  desire  to  escape  penalty  that 
comes  by  preaching  the  wrath  to  come.  Do 
you  ever  find  in  Paul's  letters,  or  John's,  or 
James's,  or  Peter's,  any  appeals  to  men  to 
prepare  for  death,  to  make  haste  lest  death 

^  Acts  ii.  36,  37. 

39 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

overtake,  to  come  now  lest  to-night  death 
may  intervene,  or  such  expostulation  as  we 
hear  these  days,  such  as,  for  instance,  con- 
torts the  meaning  of  the  text,  *' Prepare  to 
meet  thy  God,"  making  it  to  mean  prepare  to 
meet  Him  after  death  instead  of  prepare 
to  meet  Him  now?^  Truly  there  is  a  fateful 
tone  both  in  Jesus  and  the  apostles,  a  clear 
revelation  of  the  eternal  joy  of  them  that 
accept  the  great  salvation,  and  of  the  eternal 
sorrow  of  them  that  neglect  it;  but  there  is  no 
such  priestly  and  superstitious  exploitation  of 
death,  the  "King  of  Terrors,"  the  awful  mys- 
tery, to  hurry  ignorant  men  into  perfunctory 
profession  of  a  life  they  in  no  measure  appre- 
ciate nor  wish  for,  as  we  find  in  the  latter  his- 
tory of  the  church.  Saving  with  the  gospel- 
ers,  was  a  saving  from  sin^  not  primarily  a 
saving  from  shadowy,  dreadful  torment  in  a 
future  life. 

The  essential  element  in  salvation  is  deliv- 
erance, not  security ;  for  the  latter  is  merely 
a  consequence  of  the  former.  Men  are  under 
the  power  of  beastly  impulses  and  evil  habits 
and  thoughts.  Christ  comes  as  a  deliverer  to 
break  the  dominion  of  sin  and  set  men  free 
that  they  may  lead  true  lives.  No  one  is  ever 
saved  in  the  sense  of  being  insured  against 

^  Amos  iv.  12.  "Therefore  thus  will  I  do  unto  thee.  O  Israel; 
and  because  1  will  do  this  unto  thee,  prepare  to  meet  thy  God,  O 
Israel." 

40 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   HEAVEN 

falling  again  into  sin,  and  hence  into  condem- 
nation. Paul  certainly  was  a  saved  man,  and 
he  declared  that  he  had  to  keep  his  body, 
under  lest  he  himself  should  become  a  cast-l 
away.^  Even  the  angels  were  not  secure  in 
this  sense,  for  we  read  that  some  of  them 
fell.^  The  whole  insurance  idea  is  perniciQUS. 
We  are  indeed  secure  in  the  sense  of  knowing 
that  so  long  as  we  are  in  the  love  of  God 
no  harm  can  befall  us,  but  the  idea  that,  be- 
cause of  anything  that  we  do  or  that  God 
has  done  for  us,  we  henceforth  are  removed 
from  any  possibility  of  sinning,  is  a  dangerous 
tradition,  inconsistent  with  free  moral  agency 
and  unwarranted  by  Holy  Writ.^  Neither  in 
this  world  nor  in  the  world  to  come  is  any 
such  artificial  security  guaranteed  us.  While 
we  are  living  in  Him,  while  He  leads  us,  we 
are  certain  of  peace  and  all  good  things  and 
are  safe  from  harm;  but  that  there  is  any 
insurance  policy  issued  to  a  soul  in  whom  God 
does  not  abide  as  a  saving  presence,  this 
teaching  has  done  much  damage  in  the 
world. 

Progress,  not  security,  is  the  object  of  reli- 
gion.    The  history  of  the  church  illustrates 

>  I  Cor.  ix.  27.  '  Jude  6. 

3  Paul's  confidence  was  in  God,  not  in  any  impeccable  state; 
"  I  am  persuaded  nothing  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God." 
Rom.  viii.  38,  39:  and,  "1  know  w/iom  I  have  believed  (not  what 

1  have  believed)  and  1  am  persuaded  that  He  is  able  to  keep." 

2  Tim.  i.  12. 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

this.  God  has  been  always  calling  a  chosen 
few.  But  He  called  them  to  develop;  they 
constantly  misunderstood  Him;  thinking  they 
were  called  to  security.  They  were  elected 
to  progress;  they  thought  themselves  called 
to  a  fixed  state  of  divine  favor.  So  He  has 
always  been  at  last  rejecting  those  whom  He 
called  and  raising  up  others.  Thus  He  se- 
lected the  Jewish  nation  to  develop  the  idea  of 
God  among  men.  When  they  persistently 
construed  their  privilege  to  be  merely  a  selfish 
heritage  because  they  were  better  than  Gen- 
tiles, He  cast  them  off.  He  raised  up,  then, 
the  church,  that  through  it  the  influence  of 
His  Spirit  might  develop  men.  The  church 
made  the  same  mistake,  thinking  it  was 
segregated  to  be  secure,  not  to  progress.  It 
conceived  itself  to  be  a  colonization  society 
to  transport  a  few  souls  from  a  hopelessly  lost 
world  into  heaven.  Therefore  in  these  times 
we  see  God  doing  great  works  outside  of  the 
church,  through  Christian,  yet  non-denomina- 
tional agencies,  such  as  the  thousands  of 
charities  and  humane  institutions.  While 
churchly  dominancy  as  such  is  on  the  wane, 
the  ideas  the  church  stands  for  never  had  so 
much  vitality.  Thus  He  constantly  chooses 
and  lays  aside  His  agencies,  as  they  obey  or 
/  disobey  Him.  He  is  continually  saying,  "Go 
y/     on!      Come    up    higher!"    while    the    church 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   HEAVEN 

continually     misunderstands     Him     to    say, 
*'Here  you  may  rest." 

What  does  the  New  Testament  mean  by 
heaven,  seeing  it  does  not  mean  a  place,  nor 
mean  a  condition  that  begins  at  death? 
Heaven,  in  the  New  Testament,  is  used  in 
two  senses:  first,  the  sky,  as  "clouds  in 
heaven,"  "a  voice  from  heaven,"  "looking 
up  into  heaven";  and  second,  the  spiritual 
kingdom  which  Christ  came  to  set  up  among 
men,  as  "the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  among 
you."  So  that  we  have  two  ideas  in  the  New 
Testament  word  heaven:  first,  the  boundless 
universe,  or  skyey  host,  which  always,  since 
man  first  looked  upward,  has  been  the  symbol 
of    majesty    and    glory,     and    has   been   the 

finspirer  of  lofty  thoughts;  this  is  the  symbol;     % 
second,   the  spiritual  reality  itself,  the  actu-     ] 
ality  typified  by  the  symbol,  that  is,  the  realm     I 
of  highand  divine  living,  into  which  the  Son 
of  GoacametonrrmenLT 

It  is  this  last  meaning  that  is  constantly  in 
the  mind  of  Christ.  He  distinctly  said: 
"The  Kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  ob- 
servation— neither  shall  ye  say,  Lo  here!  or, 
Lo  there!  for,  behold,  the  Kingdom^f  Qpd 
is  among  yau.  "^  The  Kingd'onrof'God  is  not 
up  there  in  the  sky,  nor  over  there  in  the 
sweet   by   and    by,   b-ut   it   is   down    here    in 

*  Luke  xvii.  21. 

43 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

our  breasts,  over  here  among  the  pots  and 
kettles. 

Paul  says  the  same  thing  in  another  way: 
"The  Kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and  drink," 
that  is,  it  is  not  any  materiality  of  time  or 
place,  "but  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy 
in  the  Holy  Ghost.  "^  The  Master  would 
never  have  said  to  His  disciples,  "Go  preach, 
the  Kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand,"^  if  He 
meant  the  abode  of  the  blessed.  Most  of  the 
parables  were  spoken  to  show  what  "the  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  like":  but  He  must  have 
had  in  mind  the  spiritual  domain  among  living 
men  and  could  not  have  intended  to  speak 
of  the  home  beyond  the  grave,  when  He  said 
that  it  was  like  a  mustard  seed,  or  a  sower, 
or  tares  and  wheat,  or  a  draw  net,  or  an  un- 
merciful servant,  and  the  like.^ 

There  is  an  upper  thought  and  a  lower 
thought  about  any  truth.  The  lower  is 
earthy,  tangible,  narrow;  the  upper  is  spir- 
itual, invisible,  large;  the  lower  is  temporal, 
passing  into  the  higher;  the  upper  is  eternal 
and  abides.  Paul  says:  "We  look  not  at  the 
things  which  are  seen,  for  they  are  temporal; 
but  we  look  at  the  things  which  are  not  seen, 
for  they  are  eternal. "  *     Heaven  can  never  be 

'  Rom.  xiv.  17.  This,  however,  was  not  Paul's  point  in  this 
passage. 

»  Matt.  X.  7.  See  also  Matt,  iii,  2;  iv.  17;  Mark  i.  15;  Luke  x.  9; 
xi.  20;  etc. 

»  See  Matt,  xiii.,  etc.  *  2  Cor.  iv.  18. 

44 


i 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   HEAVEN 

seen  with  the  eye,  for  the  things  of  God  are 
^'spiritually  discerned."^  Speaking  of  the 
bliss  of  the  redeemed,  Paul  declares  that  "eye 
hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither  hath  it 
entered  into  the  heart  of  man  to  conceive  the 
things  that  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that 
love  Him" — a  text  that  is  usually  applied  to 
the  glories  of  the  next  world,  which  shows 
how  tenacious  a  misconception  can  be,  for  the 
apostle,  in  the  very  next  words  following, 
adds,  "but  God  /tafA  revealed  them  to  us  by 
His  spirit."  ^  It  is  this  upper  thought  that  is 
always  in  the  mind  of  Jesus.  To  it  should  be 
referred  those  sayings  of  His  which  allude  to 
the  heavenly  kingdom. 

Let  us  take  some  of  these  passages  and  see 
how  much  more  sane  and  reasonable  the  upper 
thought  renders  them.  When  we  are  told  to 
"lay  up  for  ourselves  treasures  in  heaven,"^ 
is  it  not  better  to  interpret  it  that  we  are  to 
invest  in  men,  to  seek  to  be  rich  in  what  we 
produce  of  good  to  our  fellows,  rather  than 
to  put  by  good  deeds  to  stand  to  our  credit 
in  the  next  life?  The  real  wealth  of  the 
world  is  in  healthy  bodies,  sound  minds,  and 
true  souls,  and  we  are  to  increase  the  supply 
of  such  treasures  as  this  for  ourselves;  one  is 
rich  in  proportion  as  he  has  developed  man- 
hood   in    others    and    himself,    for  this  store 

*  2  Cor.  ii.  14.  «  I  Cor.  ii.  9, 10.  ^  Matt.  vi.  19  21. 

45 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

**neither  moth  nor  rust  doth  corrupt,  nor 
thieves  break  through  and  steal." 

*'For  great  is  your  reward  in  heaven"  ^  sig- 
nifies the  gain  we  secure  in  our  inward  stock 
of  that  "righteousness,  peace,  and  joy"  of 
which  Paul  says  heaven  is  composed;  and  not 
that  after  death  we  will  be  recompensed  for 
all  the  earthly  pleasures  we  have  missed  here. 

"Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His 
rigliteousness"  ;^  is  it  not  more  rational  to  con- 
strue this  as  an  admonition  to  seek  first  the 
higher  life  than  to  seek  first  security  after 
death? 

Speaking  to  the  Pharisees  who  had  accused 
Him  of  casting  out  devils  by  the  aid  of  Beelze- 
bub, Jesus  replied:  "But  if  I  cast  out  devils 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  then  is  the  kingdom  of 
God  come  unto  you.  "^  Is  it  that  the  holy 
city  had  come  unto  them? 

"It  is  harder  for  a  camel  to  pass  through  the 
eye  of  a  needle  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter 
the  kingdom  of  God"* — not  for  him  to 
squeeze  past  Peter  at  the  gate,  but  harder 
for  him,  with  the  multiform  temptations  to  a 
sensual  life  that  come  with  wealth  to  appre- 
ciate, to  desire  or  to  be  willing  to  receive  a 
life  like  that  of  Christ. 

"The  publicans  and    harlots   go   into   the 

*  Matt,  V.  12.  '  Luke  xi.  20. 

•  Matt.  vi.  33.  *  Mark  x.25. 

46 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   HEAVEN 

kingdom  of  God  before  you  (chief  priests)";^ 
that  is,  their  simple,  open  natures  more 
quickly  grasp  my  meaning  and  follow  me, 
than  your  minds,  so  full  of  self-conceit. 

"The  kingdom  of  heaven  suffereth  vio- 
lence, and  the  violent  take  it  by  force"  ;^ 
not  that  men  storm  the  walls  of  the  New 
Jerusalem,  but  that  determined,  intense  souls 
easily  win  the  higher  life. 

"Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for  theirs  is 
the  kingdom  of  heaven";^  not  that  they  are 
to  be  given  rule  over  the  future  country,  but 
that  theirs  is  the  disposition  which  is  best 
disposed  to  assimilate  with  the  life  revealed 
by  Christ. 

"The  same  shall  be  called  least— greatest 
in  the  kingdom  of  heaven";*  not  that  there 
are  ranks  and  degrees  in  the  world  to  come 
(which  may  or  may  not  be  true;  this  passage 
has  nothing  to  do  with  it),  but  that  men  ap- 
prehend the  life  of  Christ  in  a  greater  or  a 
less  degree. 

"It  is  given  unto  you  to  know  the  mysteries 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  unto  them  it 
is  not  given"  ^ — given  to  His  disciples,  not 
to  the  Pharisees.  This  is  not  to  say  the 
disciples  were  to  understand  the  mysteries  of 
the  life  beyond,  for  they  did  not,  or  if  they 

*  Matt.  xxi.  31.  '^  Matt.  v.  3.  ^  Matt.  xiii.  11. 

»  Matt.  xi.  12.  *  Matt.  xi.  11;  xviii.  4. 

47 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

did  they  never  told  them ;  but  that  they  alone, 
receiving  Christ,  were  to  comprehend  the 
wondrous  powers  and  joys  of  the  higher  liv- 
ing; this  mystery  they  did  declare. 

*'And  I  will  give  unto  thee  (Peter)  the  keys 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven."^  What  a  world 
of  churchly  nonsense  would  have  been  saved 
if  men  had  but  grasped  the  upper  thought 
here!  The  kingdom  was  the  Christ-life,  the 
key  was  the  spirit  that  made  it  plain,  unlocked 
it.  The  "power  of  the  keys"  is  not  lodged  in 
any  pope  or  church,  but  in  the  man  who  knows 
and  trusts  in  Jesus,  and  thus  acquires  "the 
mind  of  Christ." 

"Ye  Pharisees  shut  up  the  kingdom  of 
heaven";^  they  did  not  bar  the  doors  of  the 
city  of  the  blest;  that  they  could  not  do;  but 
they,  by  their  perversion  of  true  religion, 
prevented  men  from  seeing  and  entering  upon 
the  life  of  real  godliness. 

These  illustrations  might  be  increased  from 
the  New  Testament,  but  perhaps  enough  have 
been  set  forth  to  show  how  much  more  whole- 
some and  Christ-like  our  perception  of  the 
mind  of  the  Spirit  in  the  Book  will  be  if  we 
give  constant  preference  to  the  upper  thought. 

Some  may  say,  "But  do  you  not  destroy  by 
this  argument  the  hope  of  heaven,  a  sweet, 
inspiring,   and  healthful  incentive?"      By  no 

1  Matt.  xvi.  19.  *  Matt,  xxiii.  13. 

48 


THE   KINGDOM    OF   HEAVEN 

means.  This  hope  is  reasonable  and  well 
founded.  We  do  not  attempt  to  destroy  it, 
but  to  rest  it  upon  a  sure  and  Scriptural  basis. 
The  true  theory  of  a  life  of  bliss  beyond  the 
;grave  is  that  it  is  the  necessary,  natural  con- 
'tinuance  of  the  divine  life  begun  here.  The 
point  is,  that  heaven  is  not  a  reward,  a  differ- 
ent life  or  place  bestowed  on  us  after  death 
as  pay  or  wages  for  what  we  do  here;  but  that 
if  one  now  enters  upon  the  Christ-life,  he  has 
entered  upon  an  eternal  career,  upon  which 
death  has  no  effect.  "Nor  life  nor  death  nor 
things  present  nor  things  to  come"  shall 
separate  him  from  the  divine  inward  power 
which  raises  him  up  to  be  God's  true  child. 

We  conclude,  then,  that  the  object  of  God's 
personality  as  revealed  in  Jesus,  is  to  trans- 
form this  race  into  His  own  image.  How  He 
is  to  do  this  with  those  who  live  upon  earth. 
He  has  shown.  What  He  is  to  do  with  those 
souls  He  has  taken  away,  through  death,  to 
other  spheres  is  not  our  concern.  **What  is 
that  to  thee?     Eollowthou  Me!"^ 

*  John  xxi.  22. 


49 


SUGGESTIONS 

The  causal  force  in  Evolution  among  animals  and 
plants  is  the  same  as  the  causal  force  of  Development 
among  spirits — it  is  God. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  the  conservator  of 
the  idea  of  God's  personality. 

Broadly  speaking,  environment  does  not  make 
man,  man  makes  environment;  in  this  sense  heaven 
is  a  happy  place. 

There  is  no  moral  efficacy  in  death. 

The  whole  insurance  idea  of  salvation  is  pernicious. 

Conviction  of  sin  is  wrought  by  God's  personal  in- 
fluence; only  desire  to  escape  penalty  is  wrought  by 
fear. 

The  essential  element  in  salvation  is  deliverance, 
not  security. 

The  true  ground  of  our  belief  in  a  future  life  is  that 
it  is  a  necessary  continuation  of  the  kind  of  life  we 
have  here;  thus  Christ  said  merely:  "If  it  were  not  so 
I  would  have  told  you." 


CHAPTER   III 

DYNAMICS 

The  Power  of  Religion  Consists  not  in  Rewards  and 
Punishments  but  in  God's  Personal  Influence 


"Thou  hast  heard  that  it  hath  been  said  by  them 
of    old    time — but    I    say   unto   you." — Jesus,  Matt. 

V.  21,  22. 

"The  first  thing  a  boy  has  to  do,  is  to  learn  implicit 
obedience  to  rules.  The  first  thing  in  importance  for 
a  man  to  learn  is  to  sever  himself  from  maxims, 
rules,  laws.  Why?  That  he  may  become  antinomian 
or  latitudinarian?  No.  He  is  severed  from  sub- 
mission to  the  ?naxim,  because  he  has  got  allegiance 
to  the  principle.  In  every  law  there  is  a  spirit,  in 
every  maxim  a  principle;  and  the  law  and  the  maxim 
are  laid  down  for  the  sake  of  conserving  the  spirit 
and  the  principle  which  they  inshrine."— Robertson, 
The  Lawful  and  Unlawful  Use  of  Law. 

"Our  very  religion  itself  has  no  surer  foundation 
than  the  contempt  of  death." — Montaigne,  Essays, 
Vol.  I.,  74. 

"The  greatest,  however,  of  all  the  obstacles  to  the 
habit  of  followmg  truth,  is  the  tendency  to  look  in  the 
first  instance  to  the  expedient.  And  this  is  the  sin 
which  most  easily  besets  those  who  are  engaged  in 
the  instruction  of  others,  inasmuch  as  the  conscious- 
ness of  falsehood  even  if  it  exist  at  the  outset,  will 
very  soon  wear  away.  He  who  does  not  begin  by 
preaching  what  he  thoroughly  believes,  will  speedily 
end  by  believing  what  he  preaches." — Whately, 
Difficulties  in  the  Writings  of  St.  Paul,  p.  49. 


CHAPTER   III 

We  have  seen  that  the  object  of  God  is  to 
redeem  men  by  bringing  them  into  commun- 
ion with  Himself.  We  next  pass  to  the 
agency  or  means  by  which  this  conversion  is 
to  be  effected.  That  agency  is  simply  and 
only  His  personal  influence.  As  men  come  to 
know  Him,  they  will  be  "changed  into  the 
same  image  as  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord." 
The  true,  proper,  and  dominant  motive,  there- 
fore, in  spreading  Christ's  kingdom  consists 
in  manifesting  Him  in  our  lives  ^and  bearing 
^•witness  to  Him,  so  that  through  us  others 
I  may  be  brought  into  touch  with  Him.  This 
is  the  Gospel  motive.  It  has  completely 
superseded  the  temporary  motive  of  rewards 
and  punishments.  We  may  safely  say  that 
rewards  and  punishments  have  been  abolished 
by  the  programme  of  Jesus;  provided,  we 
keep  in  mind  that  it  is  only  as  motives  they 
have  thus  been  superseded  by  a  better  motive. 
For  as  facts,  as  natural  results  inherently 
consequent  upon  all  our  actions,  they,  of 
course,  must  ever  remain.  Throughout  eter- 
nity it  must  ever  be  that  to  do  wrong  brings 
S3 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

pain,  and  tg  do  right  joy.  But  it  is  one  thing 
to  recognize  this  as  a  beneficent  law  of  nature, 
and  quite  another  thing  to  make  it  the  dy- 
namics of  the  Christian  propaganda/ 

The  only  system  of  rewards  and  punish- 
ments explicitly  laid  down  in  the  Scriptures 
is  in  the  Old  Testament;  and  they  were  all 
temporal,  they  were  not  said  to  take  effect 
beyond  the  grave.  If  the  people  were  obedi- 
ent, they  were  to  be  prospered  in  basket  and 
store,  to  be  healthy  and  numerous,  to  be  vic- 
torious in  battle  ani  to  be  abundant  in  goods. 
The  whole  scheme  was  an  earthly  one.  The 
Old  Testament  does  not  lift  the  veil  of  death 
to  reveal  the  future.  It  is,  therefore,  the 
rewards  and  punishments  of  this  earth  only 
that  are  used  in  the  Old  Testament  as  in- 
centives. When  the  New  Testament  preach- 
ers appeared,  they  dropped  these  incentives 
for  a  better  one.  The  glories  of  heaven  and 
the  miseries  of  hell  are  never  exhibited  by 
them  to  induce  men  to  become  Christians. 

Let  us  see  how  Paul  especially  laid  stress 
on  this.  He  says  over  and  over  that  to  Chris- 
tians the  law  has  ceased  as  a  spring  of  con- 

*  Archbishop  Whately  has  so  lucidly  covered  this  ground  that 
a  considerable  portion  of  his  essay  "On  the  Abolition  of  the  Law" 
is  reprinted  in  the  appendix.  It  is  from  his  "  Essays  on  Some  of 
the  Difficulties  in  the  Writings  of  St.  Paul,"  and  as  this  volume, 
as  well  as  many  of  Whately's  other  works,  is  hard  to  procure  in 
this  country  (I  had  to  get  my  own  volume  from  England  i  perhaps 
the  reprint  in  the  appendix  may  be  of  use.  It  will  well  repay 
careful  study:  and  all  of  the  writings  of  this  remarkably  clear 
author  are  commended  to  the  student.    See  appendix. 

54 


DYNAMICS 

duct.  But  it  has  ceased  not  because  the  new 
dispensation  is  agaijist  it,  but  beyond  it;  just 
as  a  father  has  a  set  of  rules  with  penalties 
attached  for  his  little  children,  which  rules 
and  penalties,  when  the  youths  grow  to  man- 
hood, are  unused,  not  because  they  are  no 
more  true  nor  obeyed,  but  because  the  boys, 
if  they  are  to  form  manly  characters,  must 
not  any  longer  lean  upon  them,  but  learn  to 
act  upon  their  own  spirit  and  intelligence. 
"Not  one  jot  or  tittle  of  the  law  shall  pass, " 
said  Jesus;  that  is,  there  will  never  come  a 
time  when  those  commandments  are  not  just, 
when  keeping  them  does  bring  reward  and 
breaking  them  calamity.  But  there  did  come 
a  time  when  the  knowledge  of  reward  and 
punishment  became  utterly  insufficient  to 
secure  obedience  to  law,  and  another  motive 
was  needed.  So  Paul  says  the  commandment 
became  weak  and  unprofitable,  and  was  disan- 
nulled, because  it  "made  nothing  perfect" 
(did  not  work  well);  "but,"  he  adds,  "the 
bringing  in  of  a  better  hope  did,  by  the  which 
we  draw  nigh  unto  God."*  He  calls  the  law, 
the  Old  Testament  rules,  faulty,  and  says  that 
it  "decayeth  and  waxeth  old  and  ready  to 
vanish  away,"  so  that  now  in  the  Gospel  we 
have  "a  better  covenant,  which  is  established 
on  better  promises."     Rewards  and  punish- 

*  Heb.  vii.  16-9;  vii.  7-13. 

55 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

ments  will  do  for  slaves,  but  Christ  came  "to 
redeem  them  that  were  under  the  law  that  we 
might  receive  the  adoption  of  sons;  where- 
fore we  are  no  more  slaves  but  sons;  and 
having  received  this  glorious  gospel,  how 
turn  ye  again  to  the  weak  and  beggarly  rudi- 
ments?"^ The  moving  spirit  of  law  is  fear, 
and  Christ  takes  away  this  spirit,  for  "we 
have  not  received  the  spirit  of  bondage  again 
unto  fear,  but  we  have  received  the  spirit  of 
adoption,  whereby  we  cry,  Abba,  Father."^ 
What  part  of  the  law,  then,  was  disannulled, 
and  what  part  remains  forever?  The  answer 
is,  that  forever  the  law,  as  a  statement  of 
what  constitutes  sin,  and  as  a  declaration  of 
the  evil  results  of  sin,  must  abide;  but  that 
the  part  which  has  been  removed  is  the 
motive  by  which  men  are  induced  to  keep  the 
law.  For  the  fault  with  the  law  lay  entirely 
in  its  lack  of  power  to  secure  its  enforcement. 
The  preaching  of  its  penalties  and  prizes  was 
therefore  abandoned,  and  in  its  stead  came 
the  preaching  of  "Christy  the  power  of  God." 
For  "what  the  law  could  noFdo,  in  that  it 
was  weak,"  God  did  by  sending  Christ  to 
operate  upon  men  by  His  personality.* 

Why,  then  were  rewards  and  punishments 
ever  exploited?  They  are  good  for  children — 
that  is,  they  are   of  value  for  those  who  are 

*  Gal.  i.  9.  «  Rom.  viii.  15.  ^  Rom.  viii.  4. 

56 


DYNAMICS 

irresponsible}  So  young  children  are  not 
responsible,  but  as  the  responsibility  of  their 
acts  rests  upon  the  parent,  it  is  necessary  for 
him  to  give  them  temporary  and  artificial 
props  to  hold  them  up  in  right  conduct  until 
they  are  sufficiently  developed  to  walk  for 
themselves.  If  we  are  forever  under  rules  we 
can  never  grow,  but  must  always  remain 
babes.  We  must  remember  that  God's  object 
with  us  is  not  primarily  to  make  us  do  right; 
there  is  something  more  important  than  this: 
it  is  that  we  have  right  characters.  If  all 
He  desired  were  our  proper  conduct,  He 
might  have  made  us  beasts  ruled  by  instinct, 
or  machines  run  by  iron  and  steam.  But  His 
purpose  is  that  we  grow  in  grace  and  become 
like  Himself.  It  is  essential  to  growth  that 
a  man  should  train  and  use  his  own  con- 
science. He  must  learn  for  himself  to  judge 
between  right  and  wrong.  He  must  continu- 
ally be  made  to  feel  that  he  is  the  arbiter  of 
his  own  destiny.  Thus  the  law  is  called  "a 
schoolmaster  to  bring  us  to  Christ,"  but,  now 
that  the  world  has  seen  Him,  "we  are  no 
longer  under  a  schoolmaster."^ 

The  whole  law  scheme  is  gone.  Our  posi- 
tion is  not  any  more  that  of  a  king's  subjects 
or  a  master's  pupils,  but  that  of  a  Father's 

*  Law  may  be  defined  as  the  conscience  of  one  imposed  upon 
another. 

•  Gal.  iii.  24-25. 

57 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

sons.  But  there  is  a  timid  and  childish  ele- 
ment in  us  that  dreads  responsibility.  The 
tendency  to  go  back  to  a  set  of  rules  is  as 
powerful  and  obstinate  to-day  among  modern 
Christians  as  it  was  in  Paul's  day  among  the 
Judaizing  Christians.  We  tremble  to  trust 
our  own  conscience.  Therefore  we  call  the 
Bible  our  "rule  of  faith,"  when  Jesus'  words 
are  not  rules  at  all,  but  principles.  We  would 
regulate  our  conduct  by  chapter  and  verse. 
We  drift  to  literalism,  seeking  there  a  shelter 
from  the  burden  of  personal  accountability. 
We  dare  not  cut  loose  from  the  schoolmaster 
and  entrust  ourselves  to  the  Christ-Spirit.* 
Thus,  also,  we  ask  the  church  to  make  rules 
for  us,  to  tell  us  what  is  permitted  and  what 
is  forbidden  in  regard  to  amusements,  dress, 
food,  and  drink,  and  such  things.  All  such 
regulations  are  inimical  to  the  manhood  of  its 
membership.  The  object  of  a  church  should 
be  to  strengthen  and  develop  its  people,  and 
not  to  dwarf  them.  The  net  tendency  of  all 
ecclesiastical  interference  with  private  judg- 
ment is  therefore  to  make  a  type  of  Christians 
that  is  zealous  but  narrow,  inclined  to  pride 
and  censoriousness.  Rules  make  Pharisees.^ 
Principles  make  Christians. 

'  See  particularly  on  this  point  in  the  article  from  Whately  in 
appendix. 

*  **  Beware  of  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees,  which  is  hypocrisy," 
Luke  xii.  i.  Hypocrisy,  literally,  stage-playing,  acting  a  part  in- 
stead of  being  a  character. 

58 


DYNAMICS 

It  is  intrinsically  impossible  to  encourage 
and  foster  nobility  by  rewards  and  punish- 
ments. One  never  does  a  noble  deed  because 
he  expects  pay  for  it,  nor  because  he  is  afraid 
of  some  pain  if  he  refuses  to  do  it;  he  acts 
nobly  only  when  he  cares  nothing  for  the  con- 
sequences, when  the  deed  so  appeals  to  his 
heroism  that  he  will  do  it  though  he  suffer 
even  disgrace  and  death  thereby.  Jesus 
appeals  to  this  soldier  instinct  in  men.  "Fol- 
low me,"  He  says,  "and  get  persecuted  and 
crucified";  and  the  divine  soul  of  man  rises 
to  the  call  and  follows  Him,  exclaiming,  "I 
count  all  things  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the 
knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus,  my  Lord.  I 
esteem  them  but  dung,  if  I  may  win 
Christ.  "1 

It  is  equally  out  of  the  question  to  produce 
any  sort  of  greatness  in  men  by  rules  and 
penalties.  The  clerk  in  the  counting-room 
who  acts  only  by  rules  never  rises  to  be  any- 
thing else  than  a  machine;  while  the  propri- 
etor is  developed  and  made  masterful  by  con- 
tinually being  forced  to  do  and  dare  upon  his 

'  Phil.  iii.  8.  Bravery,  not  fear,  is  the  fundamental  virtue  of 
character.  The  first  step  toward  God  is  not  fear,  it  is  the  exalta- 
tion of  the  soul  above  fear  of  any  consequences.  Courage  is  the 
universal  virtue.  No  race  of  men  has  been  found  that  does  not 
reverence  it.  The  early  men,  apotheosized  by  heathen  nations, 
were  stained  with  other  crimes,  but  none  were  cowards.  If  Chris- 
tianity were  grounded  in  dread  it  could  but  be  pusillanimous. 
Bacon  indicates  the  trend  of  this  thought,  how  Jesus  raised  reli- 
gion above  cupidity  and  timidity,  when  he  says:  "Prosperity 
IS  the  blessing  of  the  Old  Testament,  adversity  the  blessing  of 
the  New." 

59 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

own  judgment.  Christ  came  to  make  us 
kings,  not  good  slaves;  to  train  us  to  com- 
pare and  observe  and  act  as  our  own  conscience 
gives  the  verdict.  He  simply  supplies  that 
conscience  with  a  principle,  properly  orien- 
tates it,  and  then  sends  us  out  to  stand  or 
fall,  and  by  falling  to  learn  to  stand. 
"Henceforth,"  said  He,  "I  call  you  not  ser- 
vants, but  friends."^ 

The  making  of  vows,  or  the  taking  upon 
ourselves  pledges,  to  follow  a  certain  line  of 
religious  conduct  is  thus  also  hurtful  to  the 
character.  For  a  vow  operates  as  a  sort  of 
rule,  and  worst  of  all,  a  rule  of  our  own  poor 
making.  Our  motive  henceforth  is  not  to  be 
principle,  but  our  own  decree.  Anything  is 
damaging  that  separates  us  from  reliance  upon 
our  own  character.  Having  taken  a  pledge, 
if  we  then-  fall,  as  we  are  liable  to  do,  the  fall 
is  complicated  by  our  sense  of  self-contempt 
t  for  a  broken  word,  which  frequently  acts 
I  to  hinder  our  reformation.  A  fall  from  a 
mere  resolution,  as  such,  may  be  made  of  use 
to  us  by  teaching  us  humility  and  reliance  upon 
God;  but  when  the  matter  is  mixed  up  with  a 
broken  pledge  we  are  simply  making  provi- 
sion for  despair.  Christ  alone  in  this  life  is 
intended  to  be  our  strength,  and  we  supple- 
ment this  divinely  ordained  safeguard  at  our 

'  John  XV.  15. 

60 


DYNAMICS 

peril. ^     "Swear   not   at  all;  let  your  yea  be 
yea,  and  your  nay  be  nay." 

In  reading  what  has  been  said  above,  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that  I  here  speak  of  rules 
as  motives^  and  refer  to  the  tendency  to  lean 
back  upon  some  list  or  catalogue  or  church 
or  priest  or  other  external  authority  in  order 
to  satisfy  conscience.  The  source  and  spring 
of  right  action  should  always  be  the  character; 
that  is,  we  should  take  care  that  we  do  right 
because  ^i' are  right  men,  take  care  that  we 
have  right  natures,  that  have  become  so 
assimilated  to  the  nature  of  the  indwelling 
Christ  that  it  is  natural  for  us  to  do  right. 
Until  that  point  in  our  development  is  reached 
we  are  not  truly  Christians.  To  do  right 
because  we  ought,  and  yet  to  feel  that 
it  goes  against  the  grain,  is  commendable;; 
but  while  this  may  please  us  by  showing  us 
that  we  can  overcome  self,  it  should  at  the 
same  time  warn  us  that  our  natures  are  not 
yet  up  to  the  divine  mark  of  what  they  may 
be;  and  it  should  encourage  us  not  to  stop 
until  Christ  has  transformed  our  tendencies  and 
desires^  which  indeed  is  possible. 

Now,  to  accomplish  this  desired  end  rules 
may  be   useful — that   is,    rules   are    good    as 

)  Jesus  exacted  no  pledge  from  His  disciples,  nor  they  from 
^  their  converts.  The  only  disciple  who  did  make  a  solemn  promise 
I  to  Him  broke  the  promise  and  denied  Him.  "Peter  answered 
•  and  said  unto  Him,  Though  all  men  shall  be  offended  in  Thee,  yet 
I  will  I  never  be  offended."    The  sequel  we  know. 

l  61 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

temporary  aids  to  bring  us  to  right  character; 
in  fact,  they  are  very  helpful  and  necessary 
as  schoohnasters  to  discipline  us ;  but  their  value 
is  just  in  proportion  as  they  enable  us  to  be- 
come so  strong  that  we  less  and  less  need 
them,  learning  by  nature  and  habit  to  do  the 
things  we  begin  to  do  by  resolution;  in  other 
words,  rules  and  their  attendant  penalties  are 
good  just  as  they  gradually  disappear,  having 
led  us  to  Christ.  The  law  is  a  measure,  a 
yardstick  divinely  given,  so  that  we  may  test 
ourselves  and  see  whether  we  be  in  Christ, 
for  nothing  is  so  easy  as  self-deception.  It  is 
a  steam-gauge,  to  indicate  how  much  moral 
force  is  in  us;  and  if  we  thi?ik  we  be  Christians 
and  yet  fail  to  measure  up  to  the  law  we  know 
we  are  mistaken;  we  have  "tried  the  spirit," 
as  John  advises  us,  and  found  it  faulty.  But 
the  law  is  only  a  gauge ;  it  is  not  force.  There- 
fore, if  we  do  thus  and  so,  only  because  it  is 
the  law,  we  will  not  grow. 

Rules,  therefore,  are  good  only  as  they  are 
used  with  sincere  prayer  for  such  inward 
spirit  as  shall  make  us  want  to  do  what  the 
rule  says.  The  object  of  every  rule  is  to 
bring  us  into  the  best  condition  for  receiving 
the  influence  of  God.  Our  religious  feelings 
are  to  be  permanent,  and  therefore  must  have 
permanent  channels  of  habit  in  which  to  run, 
for  our  emotions  are  also  largely  creatures  of 
62 


DYNAMICS 

custom.  What  is  begun  in  the  will  must  end 
in  the  desires.  Religious  routine,  stated 
times  of  prayer,  the  giving  of  the  tenth,  the 
keeping  of  the  Sabbath,  and  so  on,  are  so  to 
accustom  us  to  righteous  practice  that  God's 
influence  in  us  will  be  helped,  not  hindered. 
Now,  to  do  these  and  similar  observances 
because  we  think  there  is  merit  in  ihem^  and 
because  we  expect  credit  for  them,  is  to  make 
them  ruin  the  character.  We  will  find  them 
growing  more  and  more  irksome,  and  as  they 
are  the  more  bitter,  we  will  attach  still  the 
more  value  to  them  because  of  their  growing 
unpleasantness;  and  thus  we  will  discover  in 
ourselves  that  character  and  practice  are  run- 
ning away  from  each  other  instead  of  coalescing. 
But  if  we  deliberately  put  on  the  "form  of 
godliness"  by  sheer  will,  not  because  that 
form  has  any  merit  or  will  gain  any  external 
reward,  but  because  by  the  assistance  of  the 
''''form'"  we  mean  to  give  free  course  to  "the 
power  of  godliness"  in  us,  then  shall  we  see  the 
form  by  degrees  swallowed  up  in  the  power. 

As  to  what  rules  we  shall  adopt  in  order  to 
assist  us  in  coming  more  fully  under  the  influ- 
ence of  God,  the  above  principles  make  the 
matter  clear.  We  are  to  use  rules  carefully, 
because  they  may  be  as  dangerous  to  our 
spiritual  life  as  they  may  be  useful.  The 
only  rules  or  statutes  that  are  of  absolute  use 
63 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

to  every  one  are  those  given  in  the  Scriptures. 
No  church  nor  council  has  any  right  to  add 
to,  any  more  than  it  has  to  subtract  from,  the 
divine  law  as  a  universal  rule.  Thou  shalt 
not  lie,  steal,  and  so  on,  are  useful  to  every 
man;  every  man  must  use  these  practices  if  he 
would  abide  in  Christ.  Besides  these,  how- 
ever, there  are,  for  individual  cases,  or  for 
certain  places  or  times,  other  rules  that  are 
valuable.  But  what  these  are  must  be  left  to 
the  individual  conscience.  The  church  may 
advise  or  recommend  certain  lines  of  conduct, 
but  has  no  right  whatever  to  commajid  in  this 
respect.  For  the  church  stands  as  Christ's 
vicegerent.  When  it  expels  a  member,  that 
is  equivalent,  as  far  as  lies  in  its  power,  to 
the  cutting  off  of  the  soul  from  Christ.  Such 
weighty  responsibility  it  certainly  has  no  right 
to  assume  except  for  a  direct  violation  of 
God's  revealed  law.  The  apostle  Paul  him- 
self would  not  speak  authoritatively  concern- 
ing those  who  ate  meat  that  had  been  offered 
to  idols,  a  practice  in  those  days  of  an  exceed- 
ingly questionable  and  dangerous  kind;  but 
he  led  the  Corinthian  church  back  to  the  broad 
principles  of  Christian  brotherliness,  argued 
with  them,  advised  them,  quoted  his  own  ex- 
ample and  opinion,  and — left  it  to  their  own 
consciences.  "Let  not  your  good  be  evil 
spoken  of,"  he  says.  "Put  a  stumbling  block 
64 


DYNAMICS 

in  the  way  of  none,  neither  of  the  Jews,  nor  of 
the  Greeks,  nor  of  the  Church  of  God. ' '  This 
broad  principle  he  leaves  for  their  own  appli- 
cation. If  we,  these  days,  consider  it  unsafe 
to  let  the  individualapply  a  principle  for  him- 
self, how  is  it  the  apostle  was  not  governed 
by  this  fear?  And  if  he  chose  the  danger  of 
allowing  the  individual  to  abuse  his  liberty, 
rather  than  the  danger  of  laying  -down  a  rule, 
which  he  was  undoubtedly  importuned  to  do, 
and  which  it  certainly  seemed  could  have  been 
only  beneficial,  yet  which  he  saw  to  be  the 
entering  wedge  of  a  new  legalism,  we  may 
certainly  profit  by  his  example. 

The  case  stands  much  the  same  with  re- 
wards   and     penalties.      Men    already    know 
that  a  life  of  holiness  and  sublimity  will  bring 
joy  incomparable,  that  it  is  better  to  do  right 
than  wrong,  and  that  sin  is  misery.     The  Gos- 
pel comes  not  to  magnify  this  fear  and  hope 
by  unfolding  the  scenes  of  a  future  life;  but 
it  comes  to  utilize  this  abiding  sense  of  hope 
and  fear  by  the  "good  news"  that  it  can  give 
men  a  n^^  power  whereby  they  may  live  high 
ilives.      The  Gospel  is  not  an  extension  of  the 
llaw;  it  is  the  energizing  of  the  law.     There- 
*fore,  preaching  the  consequences  of  sin  or  of 
righteousness   is    not   preaching  the   Gospel, 
but   the   law;  it   is  simply  using  the  same  old 
motives  of  selfish  gain  or  ease  that  already 
65 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

actuate  men   in   their  struggle  for  profit  and 
place  and  the  gratification  of  appetite.     But 

(the  Gospel  is  preached  when  we  go  beyond 
the  matter  of  any  reward  or  punishment  for 
our  deeds,  and  preach  the  possibility  of  a  to- 
tally different  kind  of  life;  not  in  appeal  to 
consequences,  but  *'in  the  demonstration  of 
the  Spirit  and  of  power."  It  is  not  declaring 
what  will  happen  to  us,  but  it  is  declaring 
Christ.  Hope  and  fear  are  merely  human 
emotions;  to  expect  to  rise  by  these  into  the 
new  life  is  to  think  we  may  lift  ourselves  by 
our  boot  strapr,.  God's  person  is  a  new  force, 
not  of  ourselves,  coming  in  upon  us  from 
above;  it  is  another  and  higher  power  than 
ourselves,  and  by  it  alone  can  we  be  raised 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Hope  and  fear 
are  also  schoolmasters;  therefore,  to  make  us 
sensible  of  the  need  of  another  kind  of  power. 
The  influence  of  God  imparted  to  us  by  the 
I  Christ-Spirit  is  the  potency  by  which  we  are 
1  changed. 

To  put  it  in  a  nutshell,  the  law  consists  of 
two  parts:  the  rule  and  the  penalty.  The  rule 
is  of  value  to  show  us  whether  or  not  we  have 
the  right  power  of  life,  and  also,  by  prac- 
ticing the  rule,  we  put  ourselves  in  a  proper 
condition  for  developing  this  power.  As  the 
power  increases,  the  rule  falls  away  in  impor- 
tance. The  penalty  serves  to  show  us  the 
66 


DYNAMICS 

emptiness  and  sorrow  of  life  without  this 
inward  power.  It  should  work,  not  to  make 
us  accept  the  Gospel  from  fear  of  the  penalty, 
but  to  accept  the  Gospel  to  escape  the  fear. 
Fear  is  not  the  motive,  but  the  motive  is  a 
desire  to  escape  from  that  low  slavery  of  a 
life  that  is  ruled  by  fear.  Becoming  a  Chris- 
tian is  not  "escaping  the  penalty,"  so  much  as 
it  is  coming  out  from  "the  spirit  of  bondage 
unto  fear"  into  "the  spirit  of  sonship, 
whereby  we  cry,  Abba,  Father." 

Even  if  hell  be  a  punishment,  heaven  be- 
yond cannot  be  a  reward.  You  cannot  pay 
for  good  work;  it  has  no  wage;  it  is  its  own 
wage.  Virtue  is  so  infinitely  imponderable 
with  vice  that  it  is  called  its  own  reward. 
Nowhere  in  the  Bible  is  bliss  beyond  alluded 
to  as  the  pay  of  Christians.  "Great  is  your 
reward  in  heaven" ;  but  there  is  a  vast  differ- 
ence between  reward  in  heaven  and  heaven  as 
a  reward.  The  parable  of  the  laborers  in  the 
vineyard  was  given  purposely  to  show  the 
fallacy  of  this  wage-theory;^  for  the  last 
received  a  penny  even  as  the  first;  there  is  no 
distribution  of  prizes  to  doers  of  good  deeds; 
"Man,  who  made  Me  a  judge  or  a  divider 
over  you?"  But  while  "the  wages  of  sin  is 
death,  the  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life."'' 

*  Read  connectively  Matt.  xix.  27  to  xx.  16. 
'  Rom.  vi.  23.    "The  wages  of  unrighteousness."   2  Pet.  ii.  15. 
67 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

When  heaven  and  hell  are  made  to  be  the 
Christian's  reward  and  punishment,  then  we 
have  left  utterly  the  realm  of  the  Gospel  and 
descended  again  into  the  domain  of  the 
Mosaic  law.  But,  it  may  be  answered,  we 
do  not  make  these  future  states  to  be  the 
reward  and  punishment  of  our  deeds  here,  our 
moralities,  but  of  our  rejection  or  acceptance 
of  Christ.  If  anything,  this  is  worse.  Mak- 
ing them  the  prizes  of  conduct  might  increase 
morality,  which  is  a  good  thing;  but  making 
them  the  prizes  of  "accepting  Christ"  directly 
discourages  morality  and  instigates  hypoc- 
risy. For  if  heavenly  bliss  in  the  next  world 
is  to  be  gained  "not  by  works"  but  by  some- 
thing else,  what  is  that  something  else?  It  is 
replied  that  it  is  conversion  and  a  life  of  faith. 
Now,  while  this  is  true,  in  a  way,  yet  the  fact 
that  we  are  to  seek  conversion  and  belief  for 
pay  inevitably  debauches  the  conception  of 
what  conversion  and  belief  are.  The  power- 
ful commercial  spirit  is  aroused  to  get  this  pay 
for  the  least  work;  to  secure  the  reward  for 
the  least  possible  outlay  of  effort.  Thus  we 
set  the  theologians  to  work  at  defining  the 
essentials;  we  want  to  know  what  is  absolutely 
essential  to  salvation  (/.  ^.,  from  future  tor- 
ment). Now,  define  the  essentials  as  we  may, 
we  can    never  define    them   into   life.^     And 

*  "If  there  had  been  a  law  given  which  could  have  given  life, 
verily  righteousness  should  have  been  by  the  law."    Gal.  ill.  21 

68 


DYNAMICS 

what  is  the  actual,  practical  result?  It  is 
that  very  many  professed  Christians  have 
substituted  an  act  or  certaiii  conditio7i  of  feelings 
called  conversion,  and  an  intellectual  accept- 
ance of  a  certain  credal  formula,  called  belief, 
for  the  morality  of  the  Mosaic  law,  and  expect 
heaven  for  this^  exactly  as  the  Jews  of  old 
expected  temporal  prosperity  for  that.  "Ex- 
cept ye  be  converted" — and  did  not  we  on  a 
certain  day  of  a  certain  year  experience  a 
change  of  heart  at  a  revival?  "He^thatbe- 
lieveth  shall  be  saved" — and  do  we  not  nod 
the  head  and]^say  Amen  to  all  in  the  Bible  and 
the  pulpit?  And  all  the  while,  thousands  of 
us  know  nothing  of  the  Christ-life  as  an  ele- 
vating, transforming,  eternal  power  within! 
Alas!  we  are  still  under  the  law,  only  we  have 
put  an  artificial,  theologic  "essential  act"  in 
the  place  of  Mosaic  righteousness.  Because 
that  act  has  something  about  Christ  in  it, 
we  think  it  is  Christian.  "This  persuasion 
Cometh  not  of  Him  that  calleth  you,"^  it 
comes  from  the  flesh.  "Christ  is  become  of 
no  effect  unto  you,  whosoever  are  saved  by 
the  law  (by  the  legal  effect  of  an  essential  act) ; 
yet  are  fallen  from  grace"^ — fallen  down  from 
the  high  life,  the  life  more  abundant,  into  the 
pit    of    barter    and    sale,    trading   a    pitiful 

»  Gal.  V.  8.  '  Gal.  v.  4. 


69 


THE   RELIGION   OF  TO-MORROW 

**gospel  deed"  for  a  "life  to  come.  "^  If  such 
there  be  who  read  this,  *'I  bow  my  knees  unto 
the  Father  that  He  would  grant  you  His  Spirit 
in  the  inner  man ;  that  Christ  may  dwell  in 
your  hearts  by  faith;  that  ye  may  be  able  to 
comprehend  what  is  the  breadth  and  length 
and  depth  and  height,  and  to  know  the  love 
of  Christ,  which  passeth  knowledge;  that  ye 
may  be  filled  with  all  the  fullness  of  God!"^ 

The  keen  world  has  not  failed  to  detect  a 
strain  of  baseness  in  such  religion  as  most  of 
us  display  and  many  ministers  preach. 

"  The  fear  o'  hell's  a  hangman's  whip 
To  hold  the  wretch  in  order," 

sang  Burns.  Side  by  side  with  our  church 
life,  but  outside  of  it,  viewing  it  with  a  more  or 
less  good-natured  contempt,  there  has  grown 
up  a  class  of  people  who  are  clean  and  hon- 
orable, with  a  high  tone  and  chivalrous  senti- 
ment, a  class  that  is  composed  of  those  whom 
Charles  Kingsley  would  call  "natural  king- 
dom-of-heavenites. "  It  is  this  class  which  has 
quietly  assumed  the  moral  leadership  of  civili- 
zation. It  is  their  sentiments  that  are  held  up 
for  admiration  in  current  fiction.  Mankind 
has  turned  to  this  refined  and  delicate  hea- 

'  "  For  in  Christianity  there  is  no  other  essential  than  faith 
which  worketh  by  love,"    Gal.  v.  6,  paraphrased. 
*  Eph.  iii.  14-21. 

70 


DYNAMICS 

thenism  to  pay  there  its  choicest  tribute  of 
imitation.  In  fine,  it  is  the  Gentleman,  not 
the  Christian,  the  world  respects  most.  Why 
is  this  subtle  discounting  of  Christianity, 
why  indeed,  unless  it  be  that  the  preaching 
of  rewards  and  punishments  has  drawn  into 
the  profession  of  this  faith  a  great  swarm  of 
people  who  are  aliens  from  its  sublime  spirit? 
The  mediaeval  church  thought  it  was  a  fine 
thing  to  see  numbers  thronging  into  her  courts 
as  a  result  of  her  proclamation  of  heaven 
gained  and  hell  avoided  by  ''belief";  the 
leaders  of  the  Reformation  shook  themselves 
partly  free  from  the  superstitious  practices  of 
the  old  church,  but  not  quite  free;  they  still 
retained  many  heathen  doctrines  and  forms, 
and  among  them  this  legalizing  preachment 
of  rewards  and  punishments  as  motives, 
although  for  penance  and  absolution  they 
substituted  "justification  by  faith." 

This  brings  us  directly  to  the  question:  the 
preaching  of  heaven  and  hell  as  the  motive 
force  in  religion,  whence  originated  it?  It 
did  not  arise  among  the  apostles  and  Christ, 
as  we  have  seen.  When  the  disciples,  stub- 
bornly clinging  to  the  ''reward"  idea,  asked 
what  they,  who  had  left  all  and  followed  Him, 
should  have.  He  did  not  dilate  upon  their 
bliss  in  the  next  world,  but  simply  said,  "And 
71 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

in  the  world  to  come  eternal  life,"^  and  imme- 
diately told  the  parable  of  the  laborers  in  the 
vineyard,  to  which  I  have  previously  alluded. 
When  Paul  spake  before  Festus  and  Agrippa 
as  when  he  preached  at  Athens,  it  was  the 
resurrection  that  smote  in  upon  his  auditors. 
Follow  his  whole  career  through  the  Acts  and 
Epistles,^  and  you  will  see  his  constant  theme 
to  be  a  living,  risen,  saving  Christ,  who  puts  in 
men  a  new  Spirit^  exalts  them  into  a  higher, 
diviner  life.  But  when  in  after  centuries  the 
power  of  the  Roman  bishop  began  to  predom- 
inate, and  when  the  lust  of  members  and 
temporal  display  and  political  power  crept 
into  the  church,  more  and  more  concessions 
were  made  to  heathenism,  in  order  to  induce 
the  pagans  to  submit  the  more  readily  to  the 
church.^  Now  almost  every  heathen  religion 
luxuriates  in  descriptions  of  the  future  world. 
While  the  Bible  speaks  sparingly  and  only  in 

'  Mark  x.  30  and  Luke  xviii.  30  use  this  language,  but  Matt. 
xix.  29  has,  "  and  shall  inherit  eternal  life." 

«  Acts  xxvi.  23-24.  Those  who  wish  to  investigate  this  further 
are  referred  to  Acts  v.  42;  viii.  35;  x.  36;  xiii.  38;  xvii.  3;  xviii.  5; 
also  Acts  ii.  32;  iv.  i;  i\.  10-33;  v,  32;  xiii.  33;  xvii.  3,  18,  33;  xxiii. 


6;  xxiv.  15-21;  xxv.  19;  xxvi.  6,  8,  23,  etc.,  the  former  showing  how 
the  apostles  preached  Christ,  the  latter  how  they  preached  Christ 
risen.    There  were  no  exploitations  of  heaven  ana  hell.    Further 


instances  will  be  give    in  chapter  five. 

^  "The  practical  purpose  for  which  the  church  had  been  estab- 
lished or  for  which  Christianity  existed,  was  not,  to  the  Latin 
mind,  primarily  an  ethical  one;  even  »  *  *  *  the  morality 
which  the  gospel  enjoined  was  not  an  end  in  itself,  but  a  means 
to  a  remoter  end— the  salvation  of  the  soul  from  the  consequences 
of  sin  in  the  future  world.  The  doctrine  of  endless  punishment 
for  all  who  rejected  the  claims  of  Christ  must  have  been  from  an 
early  period  the  underlying  belief  which  gave  the  strongest  sanc- 
tion to  the  church's  authority."  A.  V.  G.  Allen,  "  Continuity  of 
Christian  Thought,"  p.  121. 

72 


DYNAMICS 

hints  and  figures  of  the  details  of  the  life  to 
come,  the  Koran  has  hells  blazing  with  every 
refinement  of  cruelty,  and  heavens  crowded 
with  sensuous  delights.  Bear  in  mind  that 
the  rewards  and  punishments  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament were  earthly,  and  that  in  the  New 
Testament  the  future  state  is  not  exploited 
as  a  motive,  and  you  will  see  that  the  custom 
of  making  hell's  horrors  and  heaven's  glory 
Gospel  motives  originated  not  in  the  Bible  at 
all,  but  was  borrowed  from  pagajiism  by  the 
monks  at  the  darkest  period  of  the  church's 
history/ 

And  why  was  it  borrowed?  Simply  because 
the  church  leaders  must  have  so7ne  motive, 
and  not  having  the  real,  Gospel  motive — to 
wit,  "the/^w^r  of  an  endless  life, "  ^  they  took 
the  heathen  motive,  the  imaginations  of  an 
endless  life.  The  preaching  of  death's  ter- 
rors and  allurements  will  always  be  morbid, 
and  makes  a  gloomy,  unwholesome  religious 
life.  ''Memeftto  viori''  is  not  a  Christian 
motto.  We  are  to  remember  life,  not  death. ^ 
We  are  not  put  here  merely  to  prepare  for 
eternity,  but  to  begin  a  high  life  that  stretches 
out  into  eternity.      This  life  is  not  so  much  a 

*  "  Christianity  (under  the  papacy)  approximated  in  its  inmost 
principle  to  Islam."    Ibid,  p.  171. 

«  See  Heb.  vii.  16. 

*  "  The  more  of  present  life  we  have,  the  more  shall  we  believe 
in  the  future."  James  Freeman  Clarke,  "  Common  Sense  in  Re- 
ligion," p.  197. 

73 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

state  of  probation  as  of  opportunity.  The 
triumph  of  the  Gospel  waits  for  men  who  shall 
show  forth  its  sublime  possibilities.  The 
world  waits  for  the  church  to  show  it  that 
glorious  *'life  more  abundant,"  *  full  of  hope, 
joy,  peace,  and  "all  the  fullness  of  God." 
Civilization  is  hungry,  lean,  and  empty; 
despair  is  in  its  literature,  ennui  is  in  its  social 
life,  fevered  restlessness  in  its  business.  It 
craves  "life,  more  life."  It  uses  increasingly 
more  alcoholic  stimulants  to  whip  the  tired 
pulses  into  a  semblance  of  enthusiasm.  It 
refuses  longer  to  be  coaxed  or  scared  by  future 
visions;  it  would  rather  go  to  hell  hilariously 
than  go  to  heaven  by  humdrum  and  narrow- 
ness and  drudgery.  The  present  age  resem- 
bles that  Augustan  period  of  which  Matthew 
Arnold  wrote: 

"  On  that  hard  pagan  world  disgust 
And  secret  loathing  fell; 
Deep  weariness  and  sated  lust 
Made  human  life  a  hell." 

This  life  is  so  paltry,  so  hemmed  and  balked 
by  limitations,  that  it  is  not  worth  living,  if 
we  accept  the  pictures  given  by  Eliot  or  Zola, 
Hall  Caine  or  Nordau.^     The  time  is  ripe  for 

'  "  I  am  come  that  they  might  have  life,  and  that  they  might 
have  it  more  abundantly."    John  x.  lo. 

«  '•  In  novels— like  those  of  Zola  and  Maupassant  and  the  later 
works  of  Thomas  Hardv,  skepticism  speaks  with  a  harsh  and 
menacing  accent  of  the  emptiness  of  all  life  and  the  futility  of  all 
endeavor.    *   *    *    Far  apart  as  Madame  Bovary  and  Cosmopohs^ 

74 


DYNAMICS 

a  new  manifestation  of  Christly  life  such  as 
amazed  and  thrilled  the  apostolic  age.  Not 
hotter  hells,  nor  more  scintillating  heavens, 
but  lives,  lives,  lives,  carrying  about  **an 
exceeding  weight  of  glory,"  lives  transfigured, 
inspired,  filled  with  enthusiasm,  displaying 
that  "blessedness"  of  which  the  young  Mes- 
siah spake  in  His  first  message.  Such  life  is 
the  real  potency  of  our  faith.  Lacking  this,  it 
is  useless  for  a  feeble  and  doting  church  to 
turn  to  ghostly  policemen  to  enforce  what 
she  cannot  win. 

The  objection  that  may  arise  to  this  view 
is  that  it  does  not  sufficiently  emphasize  the 
sinfulness  of  sin.  It  seems  to  be  taken  for 
granted  by  many  persons  that  unless  we  posi- 
tively assert  endless  punishment  for  sin  and 
endless  certain  bliss  for  righteousness,  we  be- 
little the  difference  between  the  two.  But 
such  objectors  forget  that  it  is  not  the  J>ena/fy 
that  is  to  convince  the  world  of  sin,  but  it  is 
the  Ho/y  Spirit,  and  He  is  to  do  it  by  showing 
Christ   to    the  world.^     These   objectors  are 

Problema  ische  Naturen  and  Middlemarch  and  Robert  Elstnere, 
may  be  in  many  of  their  features,  do  they  not  wear  the  same  ex- 
pression—the cureless  melancholy  of  disillusion?"  Henry  Van 
Dyke,  "The  Gospel  for  an  Age  of  Doubt,"  p.  17. 

"One  epoch  of  history  is  unmistakably  in  its  decline,  and 
another  is  announcing  its  approach.  There  is  a  sound  of  rending 
in  every  tradition,  and  it  is  as  though  the  morrow  would  not  link 
itself  with  to-day.  Things  as  they  are  totter  and  plunge,  and 
they  are  suffered  to  reel  and  fall,  because  man  is  weary,  and  there 
is  no  faith  that  it  is  worth  an  effort  to  uphold  ihem."  Max  Nor- 
dau,  '  Degeneration,"  p.  S- 

'  John  xvi.  8.  Horace  Bushnell  ("  Christ  and  His  Salvation," 
p.  116)  has  a  masterly  sermon  on  "  Conviction  of  Sin  by  the  Cross." 

75 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

quick  to  cry  danger  whenever  such  theory  is 
advanced;  they  fear  we  are  departing  from 
the  faith  and  removing  the  ancient  landmarks. 
Upon  this  point  I  cannot  do  better  than  quote 
a  clear  putting  of  the  case  by  Professor  A.  V. 
G.  Allen:  "It  is  suggestive  to  note  how  it 
[this  objection]  turns  up  in  history  when  any 
teaching  arises  which  contradicts  the  tradi- 
tional methods  of  dealing  with  the  problem  of 
human  evil.  To  the  enemies  of  Christ  it  ap- 
peared as  though  the  Saviour  Himself  were 
relaxing  the  bonds  of  moral  order  when  He 
sat  down  to  eat  with  publicans  and  sinners, 
or  when  he  dismissed  the  woman  who  had 
sinned  with  no  reproof,  but  with  the  gentle 
injunction,  'Go,  and  sin  no  more.'  It  seemed 
to  the  hostile  Judaism  tracking  the  footsteps 
of  St.  Paul  as  if  his  doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith  were  not  only  deficient  in  its  estimate 
of  sin,  but  as  if  it  put  a  premium  upon  sin — 
'Shall  we  continue  in  sin  that  grace  may 
abound?'  It  seemed  to  the  heathen  mind, 
judging  from  Celsus'  attack  upon  Christianity, 

Perhaps  the  gist  of  it  may  be  embodied  in  this  quotation:  "  In 
the  days  of  the  laiv,  men  had  their  visitations  of  remorse,  respect- 
ing this  or  that  wrong  act;  but  I  do  not  recollect,  even  under  the 
prophets,  those  great  preachers  of  the  law,  and  sharpest  and  most 
terrible  sifters  of  transgression,  a  single  instance,  where  a  soul  is 
so  broken  or  distressed  by  the  conviction  of  its  own  bad  state 
under  sin,  as  to  ask  what  it  must  do  to  be  saved— the  very  thing 
which  many  thousands  did,  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  and  in  the 
weeks  that  followed,  and  have  been  doing  even  until  now.  So 
different  a  matter  is  it  to  have  rules  in  a  book,  or  rules  in  a  con- 
science, from  having  them  embodied  into  power,  through  a  per- 
son, or  personal  character." 

76 


DYNAMICS 

that  the  doctrine  of  forgiveness  was  shallow 
and  immoral,  that  in  order  to  overcome  evil  it 
must  be  held  that  forgiveness  was  impossible, 
and  that  every  sin  must  reap  its  penalty 
according  to  irrevocable  law.  It  seemed  to 
the  excited  mind  of  Latin  Christendom  as  if 
the  methods  of  Luther  and  Calvin,  in  dealing 
with  sin,  were  of  a  nature  to  undo  the  sanc- 
tions of  morality  and  to  promote  unbridled 
libertinism."  ^ 

We  conclude,  then,  that  the  sole  legitimate 
Gospel  motive  is  the  personality  of  God.  We 
are  to  come  under  this  influence  ourselves, 
and  through  us  others  are  to  be  likewise 
brought  under  the  same  developing,  redeem- 
ing power. 

»  "Continuity  of  Christian  Thought,"  p.  15. 


SUGGESTIONS 

The  Gospel  changed  the  system  pf  rewards  and 
punishments  from  statutory  to  natural  law. 

The  chief  difference  between  Judaism  and  Chris- 
tianity is  the  motive. 

God's  object  for  us  is  higher  than  to  make  us  do 
right;  it  is  to  make  us  be  right. 

There  is  no  list  of  rules  so  onerous  that  men  will 
not  prefer  it  to  personal  responsibility. 

The  design  of  a  church  should  be  to  develop,  not 
to  rule. 

The  final  product  of  even  the  most  perfect  law 
was  the  Pharisee. 

A  pledge  or  vow  is  either  to  do  a  right  or  a  wrong 
thing;  none  should  vow  to  do  wrong;  whoever  will  not 
do  right  without  a  vow  is  not  likely  to  keep  a  vow; 
therefore  swear  not  at  all,  but  let  your  yea  be  yea, 
and  your  nay  be  nay. 

Not  everything  is  Christian  that  alludes  to  Christ. 

In  proportion  as  we  lose  "the^ower  of  an  endless 
life,"  we  lean  upon  the  i?7iaginations  of  an  endless  life. 

The  Christianity  of  the  past  has  successfully  taught 
the  world  its  lesson  of  the  emptiness  of  this  life;  it  is 
for  the  Christianity  of  the  future  to  teach  the  world 
the  fullness  of  this  life. 

Truth  leads  to  expediency,  but  expediency  never 
leads  to  truth. 

True  faith  is  faith  in  the  truth. 


CHAPTER   IV 

ETERNAL   LIFE 

Life  Influenced  by  God's  Personality  Becomes  Eternal 
in  Quality 


"This  is  Life  Eternal,  that  they  might  know  Thee, 
the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ,  whom  Thou  hast 
sent."— Jesus,  John  xvii.  3. 


"La  vie  est  vaine: 
Un  peu  d'amour 
Un  peu  de  haine — 
Et  puis — bon  jour! 


*  La  vie  est  breve: 
Un  peu  d'espoir, 
Un  peu  de  reve.  .  .  . 
Et  puis — bon  soir!' 
"The  above  is  a  terse  and  true  criticism  of  this  life 
without  hope  of  a  future  one.     Is  it  satisfactory?" — 
George  John  Romanes,  Thoughts  on  Religion,  p.  163. 

"Each  natural  agent  works  but  to  this  end- 
To  render  that  it  works  on  like  itself." 
George  Chapman,  Bussy  UAmbois,  Act  IIL,  Sc.  i. 

"To  love  her  was  a  liberal  education." 

Richard  Steele,  Tatler,  No.  49. 

"For  God,  who  commanded  the  light  to  shine  out 
of  darkness,  is  He  who  hath  shined  in  our  hearts,  to 
give  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God 
in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ." — Paul,  2  Cor.  iv.  6. 


CHAPTER   IV 

It  would  not  be  proper  to  pursue  the  trend 
of  thought  taken  in  this  essay  without  endeav- 
oring to  comprehend  clearly  what  eternal  life 
is.  It  will  not  suffice  merely  to  say  that  it 
begins  this  side  of  the  grave.  But  we  ask, 
What  is  it?  ho.w  can  w-e  secure  it?  how  may 
it  be  known?  why  is  it  called  eternal  life?  It 
is,  of  course,  impossible  to  define,  or  Christ 
Himself  would  have  defined  it.  But  it  may  be 
helpful  to  us  to  see  why  it  cannot  be  defined, 
and  how,  although  not  definable^  it  is  perfectly 
comprehensible. 

iLis  impossible  to  define  eternal  life,  simply 
because  it  is  a  condition  of  our  personality, 
wrought  in  us  by  the  personality  of  God.     To 
define  it  would  be  therefore  to  define  man  and 
God,    the   two    ever-impenetrable    mysteries. 
•A  man  begins  eternal  life  when  he  begins  to 
I  live  the  life  which  Christ  led.     Eternal  life  is 
';  the    Christ-life.      We    obtain    this    by    being 
brought  into  the  personal  influence  of  Jesus. 
It  is  illustrated  by  the  familiar  examples  of 
personal  influence  known  to  us  all.     One  can- 
not live  with  a  strong,  rich  nature,  such  as 
8i 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

that  of  Arnold  of  Rugby,  or  Mark  Hopkins, 
or  some  good  teacher  or  minister  whom  each 
of  us  recalls  from  his  own  past,  without 
insensibly  becoming  like  him,  partaking  of  his 
views  of  things,  entertaining  his  sentiments, 
repeating  as  though  original  his  little  ways 
and  sayings — that  is  to  say,  he  "follows  him. " 
This  throws  some  light  upon  what  Jesus 
meant  when  He  called  men,  saying,  "Follow 
Me."^  Now,  this  influence,  better  than  any- 
thing else,  explains  the  process  of  salvation. 
Of  course,  the  effect  of  Christ's  companion- 
ship upon  us  is  as  much  greater  than  the 
effect  of  men's  example  and  association  as  He 
is  greater  than  they;  but  in  kind  it  is  identical. 
The  reader  will  find  this  idea  diffused  through 
the  whole  New  Testament.  It  is  Christ's  per- 
sonality that  saves,  not  anything  apart  from 
Himself,  which  He  does  for  us,  and  because 
of  which  God  imputes  salvation  to  us.  The 
whole  Gospel  is  the  gospel  of  a  person,  not  of 
a  plan.  In  searching  the  Scriptures  relative 
to  this  point,  let  us  see,  first,  what  was  said 
about  Him;  second,  what  He  did;  and  third, 
what  He  said  of  Himself. 


*  Matt.  iv.  19;  viii.  22;  ix.  9;  xvi.  24:  "If  any  man  serve  Me, 
let  \\S.va.  follow  Me."  John  xii.  26.  "Serve,"  literally,  to  wait 
upon  at  table,  hence  to  be  of  use  to;  "follow,"  to  keep  in  com- 
pany with,  go  about  with;  hence,  "  If  any  man  would  be  of  service 
to  Me  and  help  Me  work,  he  can  do  it  only  by  preparing  himself 
for  this  by  My  companionship."  Follow  means  more  than  imi- 
tate, the  root  idea  in  it  is  association  and  companionship  more 
than  copying  an  example. 

82 


ETERNAL   LIFE 

And  first,  what  was  said  about  Him  and 
His  work  by  the  apostles?  In  the  introduc- 
tion to  his  gospel  John  says:  "In  Him  was 
life,  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men";^  thus, 
under  the  similitude  of  light,  describing  the 
mode  by  which  He  was  to  save  men,  His 
character  shining  upon  their  characters. 
John  the  Baptist  said  of  Him:  "Of  His  full- 
ness have  we  all  received,  and  grace  for 
grace"  ;^  we  are  saved  by  partaking  of  His 
nature.  The  angel  said  to  Joseph  concerning 
the  child  to  be  born  of  Mary:  "And  thou 
shalt  call  His  name  Jesus,  for  He  shall  save 
His  people  from  their  sins";'  He  Himself 
shall  save  them,  not  that  they  were  to  be 
saved  on  account  of  Him.  To  separate  God 
from  Christ  in  the  atonement  is  vicious  to 
correct  thought;  whatever  our  creed  maybe 
we  must  not  make  salvation  an  act  of  God  with 
which  Jesus  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  supply  a 
sin-offering;  for  "God  was  in  Christ,  recon- 
ciling the  world  unto  Himself."*     In  saving 


*  John  1.4.  Christ  is  called  the  Light  also  in  John  i.q.  ("Light 
that  lighteth  every  man.")  John  viii.  12;  ix.  5;  xii.  46.  ("I  am 
the  Light  of  the  world")  John  iii.  19.  ("  This  is,  etc.,  that  Light 
is  come  into  the  world  and  men  loved  darkness  rather,"  etc.)  So 
He  was  to  be  "  a  Light  to  lighten  the  Gentiles,"  Luke  ii.  32.  Re- 
markably in  point  is  2  Cor.  iv.  6:  "For  God,  who  commanded 
the  light  to  shme  out  of  darkness,  is  He  who  hath  shined  in  our 
hearts,  to  give  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in 
the  face  of  Jesus  Christ." 

'  John  i.  16.  Christ's  work  in  us  is  pictured  as  a  full  vessel 
filling  empty  vessels,  also  in  Eph.  i.  23  ("  the  fullness  of  Him  that 
fiUeth  all ") ;  iii.  19  ("  filled  with  all  the  fullness  of  God  "),  etc. 

»  Matt.  i.  21.  *  2  Cor.  v.  19. 

83 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

men  "I  and  My  Father  are  one"-/  one  of  the 
Gods  did  not  die  to  appease  the  other  God. 
The  atonement  was  part  of  the  mysterious 
way  which  God  took  to  bring  Himself  to  bear 
upon  the  characters  of  men.'^ 

The  phraseology  of  Paul  is  significant  in 
this  respect.  No  man  made  so  much  of  the 
personality  of  Jesus  as  he.  Using  necessarily 
the  Jewish  phraseology  of  the  sacrificial  cere- 
mony, he  yet  suffused  it  with  the  divine  Per- 
son. Paul's  passionate  appeals  to  the  world 
were  not  to  win  it  to  a  wondrous  scheme,  a 
marvelous  contrivance  or  syllogism,  by  which 
men  could  escape  hell  and  get  to  heaven;  but 
ever  since  he  saw  the  face  of  that  Man  on 
the  road  to  Damascus,  who  said  to  him,  "I 
am  Jesus  whom  thou  persecutest, "  his  one 
burning  refrain  was  Christ.  He  did  not 
preach  about  Him,  but  he  preached  Him.  He 
did  not  preach  the  atonement  made  by  Christ; 
he  preached  "Christ  crucified. "  ^  The  burden 
of  his  life  was  not  any  plan  of  salvation,  but 
he  declared,  "I  am  determined  not  to  know 
anything  among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ.  "*  So 
absorbed  was  he  in  his  Master  that  he  said, 
*'For  to  me  to  live  is  Christ. "^     He   intro- 


John  X.  30. 

See  explan: 
le  Cross." 

•  I  Cor,  i.  23.  *  I  Cor.  ii.  2.  «  phji. 


'  See  explanation  at  more  length  in  the  chapter  on  the  "  Light 
of  the  Cross." 


ETERNAL   LIFE 

duced  the  novel  phrase,  "in  Christ,"^  speak- 
ing of  the  saints  as  those  in  Christ;  also  its 
complement,  "Christ  in  you";^  nothing  but 
the  interplay  of  personalities  explains  such 
language.  His  assurance  was  not  because  he 
had  accepted  a  divine  plan,  but  "there  is 
therefore  now  no  condemnation  to  them  that 
are  in  Christ.''  ^  All  else  in  life  seemed  of  lit- 
tle worth,  for  he  esteemed  the  world  but 
dung  that  he  might  win  Christ.*  All  the 
learning  he  had  gathered  at  the  feet  of  Gama- 
liel he  threw  contemptuously  from  him 
"that  he  might  know  Him  and  the  power  of 
His  refuri-ection.'' ^  His  theory  of  how  the 
atonement  takes  away  sin  is  not  that  it  is  by 
any  substitutional  process  alone,  not  by  any 
syllogistic  reasoning,  but  because  Christ  has 
passed  on  through  death,  and  now  lives  to 
raise  all  men  up  into  a  higher  life.  As  he 
says  to  the  Corinthians,  "He  died  for  all,  that 
they  which  live  should  not  henceforth  live 
unto  themselves,  but  unto  Him  that  died  for 
them,  and  rose  again.  Therefore,  if  any  man 
be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature;  old  things 
are  passed  away;  behold,  all  things  are  be- 
come new."  ^ 

Notice,  in  the  second  place,  what  Jesus  did, 


*  Rom.  xvi.  2-7,  9,  etc.  *  Phil.  iii.  8. 

«  Rom.  viii.  10,  etc.  •  Phil.  iii.  10. 

^  Rom.  viii.  i.  "2  Cor.  v.  15-20. 

85 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

and  how  He  helped  men  while  He  was  in  the 
body.  And  observe  particularly  that  it  was 
not  by  imparting  information  to  them,  so 
much  as  it  was  by  bringing  them  into  contact 
with  Himself.  When  He  healed  the  sick  it 
made  no  difference  about  their  thought  or 
feelings;  all  they  needed  was  "faith,"  or  that 
attitude  of  mind  which  made  them  willing  to 
allow  Him  to  work  in  them.  Their  state  or 
opinions,  had  nothing  to  do  with  His  healing; 
He  was  all.  It  was  not  any  process  that 
cured,  it  vas  Himself.  When  a  peculiarly 
stubborn  esse  was  told  Him,  He  only  said, 
"Bring  him  .  >  J/>. "  ^  It  was  His  touch,  His 
hand,  His  word  that  saved  their  miserable 
bodies.  That  is  to  say,  His  works  of  power 
were  all  works  showing  the  efficacy  of  His 
person^  and  not  of  any  art  or  knowledge  He 
possessed.  This  is  most  clearly  seen  in  the 
case  of  the  woman  who  touched  the  hem  of 
His  garment.^  To  this  day  that  instance 
remains  as  a  type  of  His  method.  His  tri- 
umph is  to  be  only  the  spreading  influence  of 
His  personality. 

Note,  again,  what  He  said  oi  Himself.  He 
did  not  speak  of  Himself  as  forming  a  chief 
link  in  a  plan  to  purge  the  world  of  sin.  He 
did  not  regard  Himself  as  one  of  the  wheels 
in  the  divine  mechanical  scheme  of  redemp- 

^  Matt.  xvii.  17.  «  Matt.  ix.  20. 

86 


ETERNAL   LIFE 

tion.  The  saving  of  the  world  was  to  be  a 
personal  matter  performed  directly  by  Him- 
self.     He,  dying,  was  to  save,  not  His  death 

was  to  save.*     "And.,L.J£ I  be  lifted  up" — 

not  My  teachings  nor  My  ideas  and  pre- 
cepts— "shall  draw  all  men  unto  Me" — not 
unto  righteousness  nor  unto  heaven,  but 
**unto  Me."  2  ''I  am  the  Way,  the  Truth, 
and  the  Life,"  He  said.  "There  is  no  Way 
to  be  saved;  I  am  the  Way.  I  do  not  come 
to  impart  to  men  a  system  containing  the  truth 
about  God;  I  am  the  Truth.  I  do  not  die  to 
enable  you  to  get  life  eternal  after  death ;  I 
am  the  Life.  The  true  Way,  the  true  knowl- 
edge of  Truth,  the  joy  of  a  full  Life,  are  only 
in  proportion  as  you  come  under  My  influ- 
ence. Do  you  want  to  eat  the  fruit  of  the 
tree  of  life  and  live  always?  I  am  the  bread 
of  life;  eat  Me  and  you  shall  never  die. "^ 
**I  am  the  vine,  ye  are  the  branches." 
"Abide  in  Me,  and  I  in  you."*  He  did  not 
tell  them  to  do  thus  and  so,  and  they  should 
do  great  good;  all  their  doing  was  to  be  use- 
less except  as  under  His  influence;  "without 
Me  ye  can  do  nothing."^  A  philosopher 
would  have  said,  "Follow  Truth";  but  He 
said,  "Follow  Me;  I  am  the  Truth."       When 

*  John  xii.  32.  '  John  xiv.  6. 

^  John  vi.  31-59  inclusive,  discourse  on  bread  of  life. 

*  John  XV.  1-8.  ^  John  xv.  5. 

87 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

the  Holy  Ghost  shall  come  to  you,  *'He  shall 
testify  of  Me. "  ^  *'The  operation  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  will  be  but  a  continuation  of  the  opera- 
tion of  My  personal  influence;  it  will  be 
Myself,  in  a  form  suited  for  universal  work- 
ing among  all  men."^  *'It  is  expedient  for 
you  that  I  go  away,  for  if  I  go  away,  I  will 
come  again^  and  receive  you  unto  Myself";' 
but  I  will  come  as  the  Comforter,  not  the 
bodily,  local  Christ,  but  the  spiritual,  world- 
wide Christ,  the  immanent  God,  standing  and 
knocking  at  the  door  of  all  men's  hearts. 

Such  is  the  tone  of  Jesus'  talk  of  Himself. 
That  this  should  harmonize  with  any  theory 
of  Him  that  considered  Him  as  merely  an  ob- 
ject to  appease  divine  wrath,  has  only  to  be 
stated  for  us  to  see  how  absurd  it  is.  His 
theory  can  only  be  that  eternal  life  is  the  kind 
of  life  God  leads;  men  can  get  this  life  be- 
cause they  are  God's  sons,  they  are  akin  to 
Him,  their  natures  bear  such  resemblance  to 
His  that  they  can  rise  to  share  His  concerns; 
they  can  get  this  life  only  by  knowing  God 
and  coming  under  His  influence;  God  was 
manifested  in  Jesus  Christ  purposely  to  enable 
men  to  thus  come  to  know  Him  and  to  be 
exalted  by  Him. 

*  John  XV,  26. 

'^  "  He  shall  not  speak  of  Himself:  He  shall  glorify  Me:  for  He 
shall  receive  of  Mine  and  show  it  unto  you."    John  xvi.  13,  15. 
^  John  xvi.  7  and  xiv.  3. 


ETERNAL   LIFE 

It  may  be  answered  that  this  gives  no  satis- 
factory theory  of  the  atonement;  it  does  not 
show  how  God  pardons  men  for  Christ's  sake. 
It  is  just  because  this  view  of  the  case  implies 
no  theory  of  an  automatic,  self-operative 
atonement  that  it  seems  likely  to  be  the  true 
one.  Perhaps  nothing  has  done  so  much 
harm  to  the  religion  of  Jesus  as  the  attempts 
to  systematize  it.  It  is  essentially  non-sys- 
tematic. It  is  the  religion  of  a  Person,  and 
personality,  while  perfectly  comprehensible, 
is  evasive  and  undefinable.  When  you  reduce 
Christianity  to  a  series  of  propositions,  it  is 
no  more  Christianity,  but  something  which 
differs  from  it  as  a  marble  bust,  no  matter 
how  perfect,  from  the  breathing  form.  When 
you  pluck  apart  the  lily  you  have  gained  some 
information,  but  the  lily  is  gone;  to  obtain 
your  knowledge  you  took  its  life;  and  God 
made  the  lily  to  lade  the  breeze  with  perfume 
and  to  bear  seed,  and  not  to  gratify  your 
speculative  craving  for  knowledge.  So  it  is 
with  the  life  and  work  of  Jesus.  The  moment 
you  separate  His  life  from  His  death,  and 
assign  to  this  one  function  and  to  that  another, 
you  have  ruined  the  whole  effect  of  Him. 
His  death  has  absolutely  no  value  to  human- 
ity apart  from  Himself.  The  saving  power  of 
Jesus  abode  not  in  anything  He  did  or  suf- 
fered, but  in  Him.  All  His  words  and  deeds, 
89 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

His  death  and  His  example,  are  dry,  useless 
things  apart  from  the  real,  living,  present 
Christ-person  Himself.  The  theology  of 
Christianity  forever  abides  in  Christ's  own 
person,  and  cannot  be  got  out  of  Him.  There 
are  no  * 'truths'*  of  this  religion;  there  is  but 
the  truth,  that  is  Christ. 

The  doctrines  of  Christianity  cannot  be 
tabulated  and  arranged  in  books,  because 
when  you  separate  any  doctrine  from  His  per- 
sonality it  is  not  true  any  more;  you  have 
taken  the  image  of  the  doctrine  away,  but  you 
have  left  the  truth  with  Him.  That  explains 
why  so  many  doctrines  seem  sometimes  true 
and  sometimes  false;  they  are  only  true  when 
taken  in  connection  with  His  personality. 
For  instance,  what  is  conviction  of  sin?  It  is 
seeing  Christ.  Men  are  not,  as  a  rule,  con- 
victed of  sin  by  looking  at  themselves,  nor  by 
being  told  how  evil  they  are,  nor  by  revealing 
the  punishment  for  sin;  but  only  by  being 
brought  into  contact  with  His  Spirit.  So 
repentance  is  false  when  merely  a  reformation 
or  a  remorse  for  evil  done;  true  repentance  is 
caused  by  coming  under  the  influence  of 
Jesus.  That  was  the  genuine  sorrow  for  sin 
which  brought  forth  fruit  unto  life,  when 
Peter  caught  that  one  look  of  His  Master's 
face  and  straightway  went  out  and  wept  bit- 
terly ;  Judas's  repentance  was  the  wrong  kind, 
90 


ETERNAL   LIFE 

the  sorrow  unto  death;  the  one  was  true  be- 
cause it  was  repentance  with  Him,  the  other 
false  because  it  was  repentance  without  Him. 
Likewise  conversion,  if  a  change  we  note  in 
ourselves  alone,  may  be  a  passing  emotion; 
but  if  it  is  the  change  brought  about  by  begin- 
ning to  know  Him,  it  is  true;  false  apart  from 
Him,  true  with  Him.  Justification,  as  a  legal 
condition  before  God  because  you  have  be- 
lieved or  done  something  or  other,  is  false;  it 
is  true  only  as  a  conviction  that  now  He  abides 
in  you,  and  he  in  whom  He  dwells  must  surely 
be  accepted  of  God.  Adoption  is  becoming 
His  brother.  His  child.  Sanctification  is 
experiencing  His  work  in  your  character. 
Regeneration  is  the  new  life  and  thoughts  and 
hopes  and  longings  He  always  brings  with 
Him  into  the  heart.  Cleansing  is  the  fleeing 
of  all  inward  impurity  from  before  His  face. 
Without  Him  we  can  do  nothing.  So  His 
Gospel  is  to  be  preached,  not  taught;  we 
preach  a  person^  and  teach  a  doctrine.  It  is  to 
be  heralded,  not  explained.  "Ye  shall  be 
witnesses  of  Me,"^  He  said,  not  that  we 
should  be  propagandists  of  His  doctrine. 

Why,  therefore,  do  we  spend  so  much  time 
in  urging  men  to  obtain  all  these  various 
blessings?  Why  pray  for  a  blessing?  Were 
the   apostles  in  the   habit   of  doing  so?     Can 

^  Acts  i.  8.  "They  overcame  by  the  word  of  their  testimony." 
Rev.  xii.  II. 

91 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

you  point  to  one  instance  in  the   New  Testa- 
ment where   the   apostles,  or   Jesus  Himself, 
led  souls  through  all  this  programme  of  succes- 
/         sive  phases  we  have  these  days  marked  out — 
■  conviction,  repentance,   conversion,   justifica- 

v'*-' """  tion,   etc.?     No,    you   answer;    but   we    have 
k  selected  the  scattered  instances  and  tabulated 

%  and  arranged  them.  But  if  they  were  to  be 
\  so  systematized,  why  did  not  the  inspired 
writers  do  it?  Simply  because  as  systematized 
they  are  not  any  more  true;  we  have  turned 
from  Christ  to  a  system.  Pray  not  for  a 
blessing;  pray  for  the  Blesser.  You  do  not 
want  conversion;  you  need  the  Converter. 
Do  not  seek  sanctification ;  seek  the  Sanctifier. 
There  is  but  one  true  Gospel  doctrine  to 
preach  to  lost  men,  and  that  is  "Come  to 
Jesus."  As  I  heard  David,  the  Tamil  evan- 
gelist, say:  "Why  do  you  search  for  gold  nug- 
gets, when  you  may  have  the  gold  mine? 
Why  do  you  want  bank  checks,  when  you  may 
own  the  bank?"  Away  with  this  petty  logic- 
mongering,  this  mapping  out  of  the  soul! 
Many  have  been  in  despair  because  they  could 
not  recognize  the  successive  states  in  them- 
selves. They  have  been  told  to  repent;  they 
try  to  repent;  then  they  examine  themselves 
carefully  to  see  if  they  have  genuine  repent- 
ance. When  they  think  they  have,  then  they 
are  next  told  to  have  faith ;  this  they  also  try, 
92 


ETERNAL    LIFE 

again  scrutinizing  themselves  to  see  if  the 
marks  of  faith  are  in  them,  being  assured  that 
unless  they  find  faith  in  themselves  they  can- 
not be  saved.  And  so  on,  through  the  whole 
'^evangelical"  process,  they  go,  endeavoring 
to  attain  each  state  successively,  looking 
carefully  within  to  see  if  they  have  suc- 
ceeded. 

Many,  in  spite  of  the  mistaken  system,  do 
obtain  Christ,  but  many  others  obtain  a  mere 
mental  satisfaction  with  themselves,  a  convic- 
tion  that   they   are   secure   of  being  "at  last 
saved   in   heaven,"   because   they   have  done 
what   they  were   bidden;    but    many    others, 
alas!    feel  that  they  have  been  juggling  with 
their  emotions,   and  being  unwilling  to   rest 
their  hope  upon  syllogisms  they  turn  away  in  ^ 
despondency.  ,i,'And  how  very  many  professed  j 
Christians^jt^-day  have  no  real  confidence  and  I 
cloudle^'^assurance  toward  God  !  ^ 

'avoid  all  this  we  must  be  determined  to 
)w  nothing  save  Jesus  Christ."  Repent- 
ance"  (turning  about)  is  seeking  to  find  Him. 
Conviction  is  wrought  by  getting  a  first  touch 
of  His  influence;  as  Peter,  when  the  divinity 
of  his  Master  burst  on  him,  cried  out,  "Depart 
from  me,  for  I  am  an  evil  man,  O  Lord!"* 
Conversion:  "If  any  man  be  in  C/irist.  h.&.  h  a 
new    creature."^      Justification:     'There    is 

»  Luke  V,  8.  '2  Cor.  v.  17. 

93 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

therefore  now  no  condemnation  to  them  which 
are  in  Christ  Jesus.'' '^  Adoption:  ''Joint 
heirs  with  Jesus  Christ.'"^  Regeneration: 
*' Quickened  together  with  Him."  ^  Forgive- 
ness, pardon:  "Blotting  out  the  handwriting 
of  ordinances  that  was  against  us,  and  took 
it  out  of  the  way,  nailing  it  to  His  cross.''  ^^ 
Consecration:  "Your  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in 
God."^  Peace:  "For  He  is  our  peace."® 
Life:  ''Christ,  Who  is  our  life."  ^  Sanctifica- 
tion:  "Ye  are  in  Christ.,  who  of  God  is  made 
unto  us  sanctification. "  ^  Love:  ''Herein  is 
love;  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  He 
loved  us."^  Death:  "Whosoever  believeth  in 
J/^  shall  never  die. "  ^°  Resurrection:  "lam 
the  resurrection.""  Judgment:  "He  that 
believeth  on  Him  that  sent  Me  shall  not  come 
into  condemnation."^^  (This  is  the  same 
word  elsewhere  used  for  judgment.  )^^  The 
hereafter:  "That  where  I  am  there  ye  may  be 
also.  "^*  Waste  no  thought  nor  anxiety, 
therefore,  concerning  these  different  matters. 
Find  Christ  and  you  have  found  all.     "He  is 

'  Rom.  viii.  i.  '  Col.  iii.  4. 

«  Rom.  viii.  17.  ^  i  Cor.  i.  30. 

»  Col.  ii.  13;  Eph.  ii.  5.  '  i  John  iv.  10. 

*Col.  ii.  14.  'ojohnxi.  26. 

»  Col.  iii.  3.  *'  John  xi.  25. 

«  Eph.  ii.  14,  ''Johnv.  24. 

»3  As,  "  Reserve  the  unjust  unto  the  day  of  judgment,"  2  Pet. 
ii.  q:  "  Once  to  die,  but  after  this  the  judgment,"  Heb.  ix.  27.  So 
that,  whatever  the  "judgment"  may  be,  those  who  are  in  Christ 
shall  not  come  into  it. 

**  John  xiv.  3. 

94 


ETERNAL   LIFE 

all,  and  in  all."^  These  blessings  are  but 
phases  of  His  personal  work  in  us. 

Above  all  things  look  no  more  into  yotfr 
hearts.  Cease  morbid  self-scrutiny.  "Look 
up,  not  down;  look  out,  not  in."  Look  to 
Him,  not  to  self.  In  me  is  food  for  despair 
only;  in  Him  is  hope.  Whether  I  have  passed 
through  this  list  of  orthodox  prescribed  states 
I  never  have  been  able  to  tell;  neither  does 
it  concern  me;  but  rather  let  me  "win  Christ, 
and  be  found  in  Him,  not  having  mine  own 
f  righteousness,  but  that  which  is  through  the 
faith  of  Christ,  that  I  may  know  Him  and  the 
power  of  His  resurrection!"^  Self-scrutiny 
without  Christ  is  ruinous;  that  way  madness 
lies,  and  blackness  and  sin  and  suicide. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  sum  of  Christianity 
is  the  personal  influence  of  Christ;  the  sum  of 
religion  is  the  personal  influence  of  Deity. 
And  personal  influence  was  the  only  means 
Jesus  used  to  make  disciples. 

If  it  be  said  that  it  is  the  Holy  Ghost  that 
is  to  be  the  agent  of  the  Gospel's  work  among 
men,  the  answer  is  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is 
but  the  one  God,  the  same  who  is  Christ;  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  the  universal'  God,  and  His 
influence  is  yet  the  personal  influence  of 
Christ,  who  was  "the  fullness  of  the  Godhead 
bodily."^      This     Holy     Spirit     works    only 

1  Col.  iii.  II.  •  Phil.  iii.  9, 10.  *  Col.  ii.  9. 

95 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

through  men,  not  coming  as  an  extraneous 
something  down  upon  the  isolated  individual. 
Paul  must  be  taken  to  Ananias  before  he  can 
receive  the  Spirit.  The  apostles  imparted  Him 
by  laying  on  of  hands.  Apart  from  humanity 
the  Holy  Spirit  means  nothing  to  us;  apart 
from  the  Holy  Spirit  humanity  means  noth- 
ing, it  is  dead.  Apart  from  Jesus'  person- 
ality the  Holy  Spirit  means  nothing;  He  does 
not  work  at  all  except  through  the  person  of 
Christ.  So  apart  from  the  Holy  Spirit,  Christ 
is  nothing;  that  is,  a  mere  Christ  who  lived 
and  died  two  thousand  years  ago  had  as  well 
never  been,  except  He  now  lives  again  and 
works  as  the  Holy  Spirit  among  men.  Not 
that  the  Spirit  is  only  the  influence  vf  Christ; 
He  t's  Christ  and  the  Father;  they  are  one, 
and  being  thus  God,  His  work  is  the  personal 
influence  of  God.  The  Spirit  is  not  merely 
God's  influence;  but  the  Spirit's  influence  is 
God's  influence. 

Eternal  life,  then,  is  simply  and  only  the 
kind^'^of  life  Jesiis  led.  Xt  is  to  be  obtained 
only  by  knowing  Him,  and  by  knowing  and 
following  Him,  coming  to  be  more  and  more 
like  Him.  That  is  the  Scriptural  process. 
*'We  are  changed  from  glory  to  glorj  into  the 
same  image  (the  Lord's  image),"  says  Paul, 
*'even  as  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord.  "^     We 

1  2  Cor.  iii.  i8 

96 


ETERNAL    LIFE 

are  ''predestined  to  be  conformed  to  the 
image  of  His  son."*  **The  new  man  is 
renewed  in  knowledge" — that  is,  progressively 
changed  as  we  get  more  knowledge  of  Him — 
"after  the  image  of  Him  that  created  him."^ 
This  is  the  power,  the  dynamic  force  that  is 
changing  the  world;  "Christ,  the  power  of 
God,  and  the  wisdom  of  God.  "^  Jesiis'  per- 
sonality is  melting  all  the  sin  and  sorrow  out 
of  humanity;  being  lifted  up.  He  is  drawing 
all  men  unto  Him.  This  force  is  like  the 
sun,  the  source  of  all  earth's  forces.  It  was 
working  in  Socrates  and  Plato  and  Buddha;* 
but  now  in  Christ  bodied  forth  and  manifested 
unto  us.  It  was  in  Abraham  and  the  prophets, 
but  they  only  "obtained  a  good  report 
through  faith,  and  received  not  the  promise, 
God  having  provided  some  better  thing  for 
us,"^  even  Jesus'  person.  This  is  "the  light 
that  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the 
world.  "'^  So  we  perceive  that  the  "imma- 
nence of  God"  and  "the  Holy  Ghost"  and 
"the  personality  of  Jesus,"  these  three  are 
one.     "This  is  life  eternal — to  know  God. "' 

*  Rom.  viii.  29.  *  Col.  iii.  10.  "«  j  Cor.  i.  24. 


Philosophy  more  especially  was  given  to  the  Greeks,  as  a 

ant  peculiar  to  them— being,  as  it  is,  a  stepping-stone  to  the 

)hilosophy  which  is  according  to  Christ."— Clement  of  Alexan- 


dria, "Stromata,"'  book  vi.,  chapter 

•  Heb.  xi.  39,  40.  ^  John  i.  9. 

''  John  xvii.  3.  Note  the  kind  of  figures  of  speech  used  to 
represent  the  mode  of  Christ's  operation  upon  men,  and  man's 
operation  also  upon  his  fellows,  to  save  them;  as,  bread,  water, 
light,  salt,  savor,  quickening,  love,  and  the  like.  Does  any  reality 
tit  all  these  figures  so  well  as  personal  influence? 

97 


SUGGESTIONS 

Theological  definitions  cannot  be  fences  enclosing 
truth,  but  spires  pointing  upward  to  the  firmament  of 
truth. 

It  is  the  commonest  verbs  of  any  language,  that 
are  irregular;  and  the  commonest,  best  known  things 
of  life  are  the  most  mysterious;  as  love,  life,  and  force. 

The  influence  of  one  man  upon  another  is  of  the 
same  kind  as  the  influence  of  God  upon  man,  differ- 
ing in  degree  only  as  God  differs  from  man. 

It  is  not  what  Christ  has  done,  but  what  He  is,  that 
saves  us. 

"You  in  Christ"  and  "Christ  in  you"  are  explain- 
able only  by  the  interplay  of  personalities. 

A  philosopher  would  have  said:  "Follow  truth"; 
but  Jesus  said:  "Follow  Me — I  am  the  Truth." 

Salvation  by  God's  personal  influence  is  possible 
because  we  are  akin  to  Him. 

The  theology  of  Christianity  forever  abides  in 
Christ's  own  person  and  cannot  be  got  out  of  Him. 

When  you  form  a  doctrine  concerning  Christ  you 
have  secured  an  image  of  truth,  but  left  the  truth 
itself  in  Him. 

There  is  no  other  "plan  of  salvation"  than  this: 
"Come  unto  Me." 

As  Christ  is  "very  God,"  so  the  Holy  Ghost  is 
"very  Christ." 

Eternal  life  is  Christ's  kind  of  life;  we  get  it  by 
walking  with  Him. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE    SHADOW    OF   THE    CROSS 

The  Central  Doctrine  of  Christianity  is  not  Based 
upon  the  Cross,  but  upon  the  Resurrection,  and 
Salvation  is  not  the  Legal  Consequence  of  the  Dead 
Christ's  Deed,  but  the  Present  Effect  of  the  Living 
Christ's  Immanence,  Made  Possible  by  His  Death 


"I  came  from  God,  and  I'm  going  back  to  God, 
and  I  won't  have  any  gaps  of  death  in  the  middle  of 
my  life."— George  MacDonald,  Mary  Marston, 
Ch.  57. 

"  Another  morn 
Ris'n  on  mid-noon." 
John  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  Book  V.,  Line  310. 

"  Why  thus  longing,  thus  forever  sighing 
For  the  far-off,  unattained,  and  dim, 
While  the  beautiful,  all  around  thee  lying, 
Offers  up  its  low,  perpetual  hymn?" 
Harriet  W.  Sewall,  Why  Thus  Longing. 

"  I  am  the  Resurrection." 

Jesus,  John  xi.  25. 

"But  God,  even  when  we  were  dead  in  sins,  hath 
raised  us  up  together,  and  made  us  sit  together  in  the 
heavenlies  with  Christ  Jesus." — Paul,  Eph.  ii.  4. 

"To  build  a  new  life  on  a  ruined  life, 
To  make  the  future  fairer  than  the  past. 
And  make  the  past  appear  a  troubled  dream." 
Longfellow,  The  Masque  of  Pandora,  Pt.  8. 


100 


CHAPTER    V 

Most  persons  are  under  the  same  delusion 
that  obscured  the  perception  of  Martha;  they 
believe  the  lower,  but  cannot  grasp  the  upper 
thought  of  the  resurrection. 

"Jesus  saith  unto  her,  Thy  brother  (Laza- 
rus) shall  rise  again.  Martha  saith  unto  Him, 
I  know  that  he  shall  rise  again  in  the  resur- 
rection at  the  last  day.  Jesus  said  unto  her, 
/  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life;  he  that 
believeth  in  Me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet 
shall  he  live;  and  whosoever  liveth  and  be- 
lieveth in  Me  shall  never  die.'"  ^ 

Just  as  heaven  is  popularly  supposed  to  be 
situated  the  other  side  of  death,  so  the  resur- 
rection is  held  to  be  that  process  by  which 
we  get  out  of  this  life  and  out  of  death  into 
heaven.  But  Christ  clearly  meant  something 
more  than  this.  For  just  as  He  made  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  to  be  a  present  life,  so 
He  now  speaks  of  the  resurrection  as  an 
experience  that  waits  not  for  physical  death. 
He  that  accepts  the  Christ-life  immediately 
passes   though   the  death   of  the  old  worldly 

*  John  xi.  23-26. 

101 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

life,  is  raised  again,  and  here  and  now  enters 
heaven.  '''I am  the  resurrection  and  the  life. " 
"He  that  heareth  My  word,  and  believeth  on 
Him  that  sent  Me,  shall  not  come  to  the 
judgment,  but  is  passed ivom  death  unto  life. "  ^ 
This  is  an  immeasurably  loftier  thought  than 
the  vulgar  idea.  The  resurrection  is  not  a 
shadowy  thing  of  the  next  world  only,  but  is 
a  real,  vital  thing,  that  any  man  may  know 
and  prove  and  live. 

As  there  are  two  forms  of  the  heaven- 
thought,  so  there  are  two  forms  of  the  resur- 
rection-thought— the  resurrection  of  the  body,^ 
and  of  the  soul  or  life.  It  is  the  first  form, 
the  bodily  resurrection,  that  has  chiefly  en- 
gaged the  attention  of  men,  simply  because  it 
is  a  material  thing,  and  human  nature  clings 
fondly  to  images,  types,  symbols,  whatever  it 
can  handle  as  a  tangible  conception.  The 
resurrection  of  the  body  substantially  means 
to  us  all,  the  continued  individuality  and  per- 
sonality of  the  man;  opinions  differ  as  to 
whether  the  actual  body  that  died  shall  rise 
again,  be  transmuted  into  a  celestial  substance, 
and  once  more  be  a  vehicle  through  which 
the  soul  is  to  express  itself,  or,  on  the  other 

*  John  V.  24. 

'  "The  resurrection  of  the  body"  is  a  credal,  but  not  a  Scrip- 
tural phrase.  The  Bible  speaks  of  "The  resurrection  of  the 
dead.'^  Perhaps  it  would  be  more  accurate  to  say  that  the  two 
forms  of  thought  upon  this  matter  are  (i)  the  rising  of  the  dead 
at  the  last  day,  and  (2)  the  rising  of  the  dead  now  mto  the  new, 
eternal  life. 

102 


THE   SHADOW    OF   THE    CROSS 

hand,  the  soul  shall  put  on  an  entirely  new 
body.  While  it  cannot  make  a  particle  of 
difference  one  way  or  the  other,  while  no  one 
of  good  common  sense  cares  in  the  least 
whether  God  will  use  the  identical  atoms  of 
the  old  body  or  new  atoms,  yet  about  this 
point  serious  theological  battles  have  been 
waged.  Has  it  ever  occurred  to  the  reader 
that  it  is  the  trivialities,  the  appurtenances 
of  religion  that  have  been  the  storm  centers 
of  discussion?  Whether  a  bishop  shall  wear 
a  white  or  a  black  robe,  whether  we  shall 
kneel  or  stand  when  we  pray,  whether  in  bap- 
tizing we  shall  use  a  pint  or  a  tank  of  water, 
whether  we  shall  rest  on  Saturday  or  Sunday 
as  the  Sabbath — that  is,  not  whether  we  shall 
rest  one  day  in  seven  or  not,  but  which  day 
of  the  seven  it  shall  be! — and  all  such  petty 
things  have  divided  church  organizations  and 
furnished  ground  for  vast  sects  to  stand  upon. 
Now,  with  the  resurrection  it  is  not  of  the 
slightest  importance  as  to  the  form  in  which 
we  enter  upon  the  life  beyond  the  grave.  A 
sensible  man  knows  nothing  about  it,  knows 
that  he  knows  nothing,  and  is  perfectly  con- 
tent to  know  nothing,  trusting  God  to  give 
him  "a  body  as  it  hath  pleased  Him."  ^ 

But  the  vital  point  for  us  to  know  and 
believe  about  the  resurrection  is  not  so  much 

»  I  Cor.  XV.  38. 

103 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

that  it  will  take  place  for  the  body  as  that  it 
may  take  place  now  and  here  for  the  soul. 
The  upper  thought  of  the  resurrection  is  the 
rising  of  the  life  of  a  man  out  from  the  death- 
life  into  the  glory  of  the  Christ-life.  It  is 
the  resurrection  in  this  sense  that  is  the  most 
prominent  thing  in  the  preaching  of  the 
apostles. 

In  order  to  understand  this  it  is  necessary 
to  look  for  a  moment  with  clear  eyes  at  the 
meaning  of  the  word  "death"  in  the  New 
Testament.  It  also  has  two  meanings — the 
grosser,  that  of  the  dissolution  of  the  physical 
frame;  and  the  more  spiritual,  that  of  a  life 
of  ungodliness.  When  we  examine  carefully 
into  what  substantially  constitutes  death  we 
find  that  it  is  not  the  perishing  of  the  animal 
organism,  but  the  inability  to  see  and  appre- 
ciate things  that  are  of  true  human  concern. 
For  instance,  an  insane  person  of  sound  body 
is  more  dead  than  one  who,  as  was  the  case 
of  Alexander  Stephens,  has  a  body  almost 
useless  because  of  disease,  yet  a  mind  bright 
and  a  heart  warm.  Bodily  decay  really  has 
not  so  much  to  do  with  dying  as  spiritual  and 
mental  blindness.  We  can  imagine  one 
whose  body  has  died  and  yet  whose  spirit  is 
still  active,  as  being  more  alive  than  one 
whose  body  is  full  of  vitality,  but  whose  spirit 
is  imbruted.  Going  a  little  further  into  the 
104 


THE    SHADOW    OF   THE    CROSS 

matter,  we  perceive  that  death,  to  use  the 
phraseology  of  the  scientists,  is  simply  a  lack 
of  harmony  and  sympathy  with  our  environ- 
ment, and  that  thus  one  is  more  or  less  alive 
as  he  uses  that  environment.^  A  dyspeptic 
man  is  dead  to  pastry  and  sweetmeats,  be- 
cause he  cannot  assimilate  them.  A  stupid 
lout  is  dead  to  the  books  as  he  walks  through 
the  library.  One  person  may  be  dead  to 
music;  it  bores  him,  he  cannot  absorb  into 
himself  the  orchestral  harmonies.  Another 
may  stroll  through  the  art  gallery  and  be 
dead  to  all  the  masterful  human  force  there 
displayed,  for  it  kindles  nothing  in  him,  does 
not  digest  in  his  soul  to  feed  his  aspirations 
and  emotions.  So  one  may  be  dead  to  clean- 
liness, another  to  fashion,  another  to  sports, 
another  to  china,  and  another  to  flowers — 
things  to  which  many  persons  are  exceedingly 
responsive.  Therefore,  death,  real  death,  is 
in  proportion  to  our  inability  to  apprehend 
and  appropriate  our  surroundings.  We  call 
one  who  has  passed  out  of  his  earthly  life — 
we  call  such  a  one  particularly  dead,  because, 
as  far  as  we  know^  he  has  completely  ceased 
to  know  or  feel  the  world;  and  yet  he  may, 
after  all,  be  simply  made  more  alive  instead  of 
being  dead.  Now,  Jesus  and  His  apostles  used 
death  in  the  real  and  spiritual  sense,  and  not 

*  Spencer,  Drummond. 

105 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

in  its  apparent  and  material  sense.  (The 
spiritual  is  always  the  true  meaning  of  any 
word,  the  material  is. the  symbolic  meaning.) 
And  as  God,  virtue,  brotherliness,  love,  and 
the  like  are  the  most  infinitely  important 
things  pertaining  to  men,  therefore  those  who 
are  irresponsive  to  these  great  things  are  more 
especially  the  dead.  Not  the  collapse  of  the 
physical  frame,  but  the  debasement  of  the 
spirit  is  true  death.  Christ  transferred 
the  word  "death"  from  bodily  dissolution  to 
spiritual  decay,  simply  because  He  viewed 
the  former  as  merely  an  incident,  but  the  lat- 
ter as  a  tremendous  calamity.  Body  death  is 
sad,  mind  death  or  insanity  is  far  sadder  and 
more  dreadful,  but  a  dead  spirit  wandering 
through  an  earth  crowded  with  God  and  love 
and  goodness,  yet  knowing  nothing  of  them, 
is  saddest,  most  pitiful,  and  most  terrible  of 
all. 

Consider  some  of  the  Scriptures  where 
death  is  so  used.  Of  course,  in  many 
instances  the  common  idea  is  attached  to  the 
word;^  there  is  no  straining  nor  mysticism  in 
Christ's  language,  but  common  sense  can 
easily  discriminate  and  perceive  where  He 
talks  of  death  in  its  ordinary  acceptation  and 
death  as  a  spirit's  paralysis.  John,  the  gos- 
peler  with  the  keenest  spiritual  insight,  gives 

*  Compare  Luke  xvi.  22  with  John  xi.  26. 
106 


THE   SHADOW    OF   THE    CROSS 

us  examples:  "If  a  man  keep  My  saying,  he 
shall  never  see  death";^  "We  have  passed 
from  death  unto  life";  "He  that  loveth  not 
his  brother  abideth  in  death. "  ^  Paul,  how- 
ever, brings  out  the  point  more  clearly:  "To 
be  carnally  minded  is  death"  ;^  "When  we 
were  dead  in  sins,"  *  etc. 

The  upper  thought,  then,  of  life  is  to  be 
awake  to  those  interests,  aims,  and  feelings 
that  were  in  Christ,  to  see  and  live  among 
the  higher  concerns  of  humanity.  Of  death 
the  upper  thought  is  to  be  oblivious  to  or 
untouched  by  these  lofty  matters.  Of  resur- 
rection the  upper  and  truer  thought  is  to  rise 
out  of  this  deadness  and  to  be  quickened  into 
this  life.  And  these  upper  thoughts  are  not 
figurative  and  symbolic,  but  they  are  real, 
and  correspond  to  actual  facts,  while  the 
ordinary  meanings,  the  lower  thoughts,  are 
only  used  of  certain  appearances  and  natural 
phenomena  of  whose  real  significance  we  can 
know  nothing.^  In  the  common  usage  of  the 
words  it  is  a  veiled  mystery  what  life,  death, 

1  John  viii.  51.    Compare  John  v.  24;  vi.  47,  50,  5i.  etc. 

«  I  John  iii.  14. 

3  Marginal  reading:  "The  minding  of  the  flesh,"  that  is, 
thinking  of,  or  being  occupied  with,  things  not  spiritual;  that  is, 
a  man  is  dead  in  the  truest  sense  when  his  little  world  does  not 
include  the  spiritualities.     Horn.  viii.  6. 

*  Eph.  ii.  5. 

6  2  Cor.  iv.  18.  "  The  things  which  are  seen  are  temporal;  but 
the  things  which  are  not  seen  are  eternal."  So  the  spirit  of  man 
is  the  reality,  the  body  its  passing  expression;  God  is  real,  the 
universe  a  phase.  Only  from  this  point  of  view  can  we  correctly 
interpret  the  Scriptures. 

107 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

or  the  resurrection  may  actually  be;  but  in 
the  truer  sense  given  these  words  by  Christ, 
we  can  know  and  comprehend  them. 

It  is  the  resurrection,  and  not  the  cross, 
that  is  the  most  frequent  theme  of  apostolic 
preaching,  for  the  latter  was  but  the  means, 
while  the  former  was  the  end.^  The  cross 
stood  for  the  cause  of  the  pardon  of  sin,  but 
the  resurrection  for  the  fact  of  the  putting  away 
of  sin  by  the  new  life.  The  death  of  Christ 
was  subordinated,  in  apostolic  preaching,  to 
His  rising  again.  "It  is  Christ  that  died, 
yea  rather  that  is  risen  again,  "^  exclaimed 
Paul.  This  was  the  motive  of  Peter's  great 
Pentecostal  sermon:  "This  Jesus  hath  God 
raised  up,  whereof  we  all  are  witnesses."^ 
So  much  did  Paul  emphasize  the  resurrection 
that  he  declared:  "If  in  this  life  only  we  have 

^  In  the  effort  to  give  to  the  resurrection  its  full  apostolic  sig- 
nificance I  have  perhaps  been  led  to  discriminate  overmuch  be- 
tween the  respective  values  of  the  cross  and  the  resurrection. 
The  incarnation,  the  example,  the  teaching,  the  death,  and  the 
resurrection  of  Christ  are  one  indivisible  whole.  They  constitute 
the  one  great  revelation  of  God  through  His  Son.  We  may  not 
say  that  one  part  is  more  necessary  than  another.  But  the  point 
is,  that,  as  mediaeval  theology  exalted  the  legal  aspect  of  theaeath 
of  Christ  to  such  a  degree  as  to  render  the  other  factors  almost 
dispensable,  as  far  as  our  salvation  is  concerned,  so  now  I  strive 
to  show  that  the  resurrection,  for  the  reasons  set  forth  in  this 
chapter,  is  the  crowning  culminating  act  of  the  Christ-revelation. 
It  is  the  resurrection  which  the  apostles  brought  most  to  the 
front,  not,  as  is  generally  supposed,  because  of  its  evidential 
value  only,  but  because  of  its  spiritual  significance  and  its  theo- 
logical importance.  To  give  most  emphasis  to  the  example  and 
teaching  of  Jesus  is  the  cnaracteristic  of  the  humanitarians  (uni- 
tarians, etc.);  to  emphasize  unduly  the  cross  is  the  character- 
istic of  Augustinianism  (the  Latin  theology);  while  to  put  in  the 
most  prominent  place  in  the  Gospel  the  resurrection  and  the 
"power"  thereof  was  the  apostles'  custom,  and  such  will  be  the 
theology  of  to-morrow. 

2  Rom.  viii.  34.  ^  Acts  ii.  32. 

108 


THE    SHADOW    OF   THE    CROSS 

hope  in  Christ,  we  are  of  all  men  most  miser- 
able."  ^  To  the  Ephesians  he  writes  that  the 
marvel  of  the  ages  is  that  God,  "even  when  we 
were  dead  in  sins,  hath  quickened  us  together 
with  Christ  Jesus;  and  hath  raised  us  up 
together,  and  made  us  sit  together  in  heaven- 
life  with  Christ  Jesus.  "^  He  makes  this  to 
be  the  aim  of  God  in  creation:  "For  whom 
He  did  foreknow.  He  did  also  predestinate  to 
be  made  like  the  image  of  His  Son,  that  He 
might  be  the  first-born  among  many  breth- 
ren."^ The  greatest,  most  dynamic  fact 
concerning  Christ  was  not  His  death,  but 
that  He  now  liveth,  for  "if  Christ  be  not 
raised,  your  faith  is  vain;  ye  are  yet  in  your 
sins.  "  *  Not  to  multiply  quotations,  if  we  read 
carefully  the  epistles  of  the  apostles  we  must 
be  struck  by  the  fact  that  it  was  the  resur- 
rection more  than  the  cross,  that  is  the  great 
burden  of  their  preaching.  It  was  not  until 
the  corruption  of  Christianity  by  the  Latin 
church  that  the  cross  was  elevated  above  the 
resurrection,  a  mistake  that  lingers  to  this 
day,  and  one  which  is  illustrative  of  a  pro- 
found misconception  of  the  Gospel,  as  we 
shall  see  later  on. 

Let  us  now  ask  why  it  is  that  the  resurrec- 
tion has  this  pregnant  force.     Why  did   the 

*  I  Cor.  XV.  19.  3  Rom.  viii.  29. 

«  Eph.  ii.  S-6.  *  I  Cor.  xv.  16-17. 

109 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

immediate  followers  of  Christ  so  emphasize  it, 
why  should  it  always  now  be  a  theme  even 
more  to  be  put  to  the  front  than  the  cross? 
It  is  simply  because  the  resurrection  means  a 
living,  present  Saviour,  a  constant,  daily  Res- 
cuer from  sin,  while  the  cross  means  a  dying 
Saviour,  a  God  participating  in  the  woe  conse- 
quent on  sin  that  thus  He  may  redeem  us. 
The  cross  signifies  the  means  by  which  is 
secured  the  cancellation  of  sins,  the  wiping 
away  of  the  old  writing  on  the  heart's  guilty 
tablet;  the  resurrection  means  the  actual 
cancellation  itself,  the  substitution  of  new  for 
old  writing.  It  is  well  to  be  given  a  medi- 
cine that  will  cure  our  disease ;  it  is  better  to 
have  the  Physician  who  can  administer  that 
medicine;  the  dying  Saviour  is  the  medicine, 
the  living  Saviour  is  the  Physician  who  applies 
His  own  blood.  And  that  blood  is  of  no  avail 
unless  He  applies  it.  The  cross  means  the 
preparation  for  forgiveness;  the  resurrection 
means  actual  forgiveness  by  the  newness  of 
life  or  the  regeneration.  As  Paul  puts  it: 
**For  if,  when  we  were  enemies,  we  were  recon- 
ciled to  God  by  the  death  of  His  Son,  much 
more,  being  reconciled,  we  shall  be  saved  by 
His  life."^ 

It  is  not  the  blood  alone  that  saves,  but  it  is 
the    resurrection— that   is,    the    risen    Jesus. 

*  Rom.  V.  xo. 

no 


THE   SHADOW    OF   THE   CROSS 

This  makes  it  all-important.  The  emphasis 
we  put  upon  the  phrase,  "saved  by  the 
blood,"  is  not  Scriptural.  We  are  not  saved 
by  the  death  alone  of  Jesus.  It  is  not  the 
cross,  but  the  Man  who  hung  there,  that  is 
our  salvation.  This  misunderstanding  has 
arisen  from  the  old  false  notion  of  salvation, 
as  though  it  were  from  a  penalty  instead  of 
from  a  life  of  sin.  The  cross  supplies  the 
means  by  which  the  resurrection  saves.  "He 
was  delivered  for  our  offenses,  and  rose  again 
for  our  justification."*  Paul  uses  not  the 
phrase,  "the  power  of  the  cross,"  but  he 
speaks  of  "the  power  of  His  resurrection."* 
We  are  not  saved  because  Jesus  appeased  the 
overhanging  wrath  of  Deity,  but  because  He 
now  lives  for  us,  to  help  us  and  guide  us  by 
His  Spirit  out  of  our  living  death.  Far  be  it 
from  me  to  seem  to  belittle  the  transcendent 
majesty  of  the  cross  or  the  endless  efficacy  of 
the  suffering  Lamb  of  God;  but  what  I  say  is 
that  apart  from  the  risen  Saviour  the  atone- 
ment is  of  no  avail;  it  simply  has  no  efficacy 
at  all  because  of  our  complete  inability  to 
utilize  it  to  lead  a  new  life  withal.  Because 
of  the  death  of  Christ  we  are  to  be  purged, 
cleansed;  but  because  of  His  reviving  and 
living  now  we  are  thus  purged  and  cleansed.^ 

'  Rom.  iv.  25.  "^  Phil.  iii.  10;  i  Cor.  i.  i8. 

^  "But  if  the  Spirit  of  Him  that  raised  up  Jesus  from  the  dead 
dwell  in  you,  He  that  raised  up  Christ  from  the  dead  shall  also 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

To  stop  at  the  cross  means  a  mere  negative 
and  impotent  salvation*/  to  go  on  to  the 
resurrection,  a  positive  and  triumphant  salva- 
tion. 

Now,  this  preeminence  of  the  resurrection 
is  not  due  to  a  theologic  quibble;  it  is  not  all 
a  question  merely  of  which  part  of  the  "plan 
of  salvation"  is  the  most  important,  but  the 
point  is  one  arising  from  the  nature  of  the 
case  and  is  easily  perceived  by  common  sense. 
For  the  resurrection  implies  a  living,  operat- 
ing Saviour  personally  saving  men  now  by  His 
own  exertions,  while  salvation  by  the  cross 
implies  man  saved  by  a  device  or  sacrificial 
ceremony.  The  former  makes  the  means  of 
saving  to  be  the  influence  of  an  ever-pres- 
ent, personal  Deity:  "Lo,  I  am  with  you 
alway,  even  to  the  end";^  while  the  latter 
makes  saving  to  be  only  a  legal  and  formal 
cancellation  of  a  penalty  in  the  divine  court 
records  against  men.  Cross-salvation  fits  the 
notion  of  salvation  as  an  act  of  securing  a 
man's  title  to  a  future  heaven;  resurrection- 
salvation  fits  the  idea,  which  in  this  essay  is 
insisted  upon  as  the  true  one,  of  salvation  as 

quicken  your  mortal  bodies  by  His  Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  you." 
Rom.  viii.  ii.  The  actual  quickening  is  done  ''by  His  Spirit  that 
dwelleth  in  you,"  and  is  done  because  "  He  raised  up  Christ  from 
the  dead." 

^  "  And  it  Christ  be  not  risen,  then  is  our  preaching  vain,  and 
your  faith  is  also  vain."     i  Cor.  xv.  14. 

^  Matt,  xxviii.  20. 

112 


THE    SHADOW    OF   THE    CROSS 

a  lifting  of  a  man  from  a  low  life  into  a  Christ- 
life,  both   now   and   forever.     We    are    saved 
into  eternal  life  because  our  Saviour  has  risen 
and  works  in  us  to  destroy  the  works  of  the 
devil.     In  other  words,  it  is  not  the  death  of 
Christ,  but  Christ   Himself,  by  virtue  of  His 
death,  that   saves  us.     We   pass   from   death 
unto  life  not  as  a  legal  or  ceremonial  conse- 
quence of  what  He  did  for  us,  but  because  of 
what  He  does  in  us  now  as  a  living  Redeemer. 
You  will  notice  this  view  is  strikingly  con- 
formable  to   all   of   Jesus'    words    about   His 
mission.      "Because     I     live,    ye    shall    live 
also";^  our  life  is  dependent  on  His  life,  not 
His  death.      In  His  parable  of  the  bread  from 
heaven   He    said:    *'So    he   that    eateth    Me, 
even  he  shall   live  by  Me,"^  and  "Except  ye 
eat  the   flesh  of  the   Son  of  man,  and  drink 
His  blood,  ye  have  no  life  in  you"  ;^  and  "He 
that  eateth  of  this  bread  shall  live  forever";* 
all  of  which   is   about  as   plain   as   could   be 
made  that  our  eternal  life  is  consequent  upon 
His  rising  again  and  living  on  to  impart  His 
life  to  us.     Again  He  said,  "My  sheep  follow 
Me,  and  I  give  unto  them   eternal   life,   and 
they  shall  never  perish,  neither  shall  any  man 
pluck  them  out  of  My  hand";^  in  which  pas- 
sage He  clearly  represents  salvation  as  a  mat- 

^  John  xiv.  19.  ■*  John  vi.  58. 

2  John  vi.  57.  6  John  X.  27-28. 

3  John  vi.  53. 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

ter  personally  attended  to  by  Himself,  He 
holding,  guarding,  and  leading  His  sheep,  and 
not  merely  by  His  death  securing  them  an 
eternal  title  to  bliss  beyond  the  grave.  And 
as  if  to  clinch  this  meaning,  He  adds,  in  the 
next  verse,  "I  and  My  Father  are  one,"^  as 
if  to  say,  *' Deity  does  not  give  you  salvation 
merely  because  I  pay  its  price  by  My  death, 
but  I  am  Deity.  My  death  and  sufferings 
equip  Me  to  keep  and  save  you  from  sin. " 
Again,  in  His  great  prayer,  He  said  that  God 
had  given  Him  power  to  "give  eternal  life" 
to  as  many  as  the  Father  had  given  Him; 
adding,  "And  this  is  life  eternal,  that  they 
might  know  Thee,  the  only  true  God,  and 
Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent"  ;  ^  that  is, 
that  eternal  life  is  not  merely  an  inheritance 
bought  by  the  blood,  but  a  higher  career 
secured  by  knowing  and  living  in  communion 
with  God  in  Christ.  Paul  also  speaks  of 
"Christ,  who  is  our  life,"  ^  and,  although  often 
referring  to  Him  as  the  source  of  our  life, 
never  once  speaks  of  eternal  life  as  given  by 
Christ's  death,  that  death  being  rather  the 
groundwork  of  our  redemption,  atonement, 
reconciliation,  bringing  nigh,  remission,  and 
the  like.* 

*  John  X.  30.  *  John  xvii.  2-3.  ^  Col.  iii.  4. 

*  In  a  rapid  reading  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  1  find  the 
theme  of  apostolic  preaching  sixteen  times  to  be  the  resurrection, 
while  in  not  one  instance  is  the  atonement  made  the  text  of  any 
address  given.     Paul  does  not  say  he  is  determined  to  know 

114 


THE   SHADOW    OF   THE    CROSS 

So  then  we  conclude  that  the  doctrine  of 
men's  salvation  by  the  atonement  on  the 
cross,  meaning  thereby  that  one  who  accepts  it 
is  made  sure  of  bliss  in  the  world  to  come,'  is 
not  a  Scriptural  teaching,  but  that  the  true 
Gospel  is  that  our  salvation,  being  made  pos- 
sible by  Christ's  death,  is  actually  accomplished 
by  the  risen,  living  Saviour.  The  cross  was  the 
preliminary,  the  resurrection  life  of  Christ 
is  the  real  means  of  salvation.  As  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  not  a  place  beyond  death, 
so  belief  in  the  atonement  does  not  secure 
entrance  into  that  place;  but  as  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  a  new  life  for  man,  a  "life  more 
abundant"  which  death  cannot  touch,  so  the 
power  of  the  risen  Saviour  gives  us  admission 
into  and  maintains  us  in  that  life.  As  salva- 
tion is  not  a  theatric  legal  transaction  of  a 
God  so  bound  by  the  letter  of  His  own  laws 
that  He  cannot  pardon  except  a  certain  price 

nothing  but  the  crucifixion,  that  is,  as  is  now  commonly  under- 
stood, the  preaching  of  the  atonement,  but  that  his  determination 
is  to  know  naught  but  "Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified."  In 
other  words,  he  emphasizes  the  personality,  not  the  act  of  Jesus. 

I  Cor.  ii.  2. 

The  reader  will  notice  also,  by  finding  in  the  concordance  all 
the  passages  where  the  death  of  Christ  is  referred  to  in  the  epis- 
tles as  a  Gospel  theme,  that  it  is  almost  always  coupled  with  His 
resurrection.  For  instance  Rom.  v.  i  with  Rom.iv.  25;  2  Cor. 
V.  15;  Gal.  ii.  20;  Heb.  ix.  28;  i  Pet.  ii.  24  and  lii.  18;  Rom.  vi.  3  to 

II  (this  explicitly  sets  forth  the  true  relation  of  His  death  to  His 
resurrection);  Rom.  v.  6-11;  Eph.  ii.  12  13  with  verses  S  and  6 
(5,  6  explains  ho-w  He  does  what  is  set  forth  in  12-13);  Phil.  iii.  10; 
Rom.  viii.  34;  Col.  ii.  12-15;  2  Cor.  xiii.  4;  Gal.  vi.  14  with  15 :  Col. 
ii.  20  with  iii.  i,  3,  4;  Gal.  v.  24,  25;  2  Tim.  ii.  11;  Rev.  i.  18;  Rom. 
V.  10-21  (comparing  Adam  with  Christ,  Paul  compares  Adam's 
death  with  Christ's  life),  etc. 

^  It  is  not  the  acceptance  of  the  Gospel  that  saves,  but  it  is  the 
reception  ol  God  that  saves. 

US 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

be  paid,  so  the  atonement  does  not,  by  satis- 
fying divine  resentment,  admit  us  into  a 
heavenly  city  the  other  side  of  death;  but  as 
salvation  is  a  saving  from  sin  and  death-life 
and  despair  and  animality,  into  righteousness 
and  Christ-life  and  hope  and  the  possibility  of 
eternal  progress,  so  the  "power  of  His  resur- 
rection"— that  is,  the  power  of  Him  as  a  risen 
and  now  operating  Saviour,  accomplishes  this. 
It  may  be  said  that  all  this  is  immaterial, 
that  it  is  only  a  fine  and  useless  distinction 
without  a  real  difference.  But  such  is  not 
the  fact.  There  is  a  profound  gap  between 
the  t-vo  theories.  The  one  reduces  salvation 
to  a  technicality,  a  court-room  shift  of  a 
martinet  Deity;  the  other  makes  salvation 
the  working  of  an  immanent  Saviour-Deity  con- 
stantly in  men.  The  one  lays  the  foundation 
for  a  superstructure  of  legalizing  sophistries 
about  what  constitutes  saving  faith  and  essen- 
tials and  the  like;  the  other  sweeps  away  all 
these  confusing  refinements  and  places  the 
soul  as  a  child  in  the  immediate  care  of  a  pres- 
ent, loving  Father-Saviour.  The  one  made 
possible  the  vast  perversions  of  the  Latin 
Church ;  the  other  is  the  very  spirit  of  the 
apostles.  The  one  produces  a  contempt  of 
God  in  unbelieving  minds,  as  it  shows  Him  to 
be  an  austere  and  exacting  Judge;  the  other 
unfolds  God  as  love  and  helpfulness,  not  as  a 
ii6 


THE    SHADOW   OF   THE    CROSS 

Judge  letting  a  culprit  go,  but  as  a  Shepherd 
going  out  after  His  sheep.  To  the  one  theory- 
are  traceable  most  of  the  bitter  accusations 
of  infidels  against  the  church,  while  to  the 
other  very  few  have  found  objection.  Most 
of  the  saints  of  the  church  have  shone  as 
holy  examples  just  in  proportion  as  they 
made  no  practical  use  of  the  theory  that  their 
salvation  was  a  title  to  a  future  world  by  the 
death  of  Jesus,  treating  it  as  a  mystery  they 
believed  but  did  not  comprehend,  and  using 
as  a  working  theory  the  idea  of  a  risen  Lord 
saving  them  daily  from  evil.  The  one  theory 
has  easily  been  perverted  into  the  corrupt 
doctrine  that  a  buccaneer  and  lecher  could 
live  in  his  sins,  and  yet  by  orthodox  "belief 
in  the  atonement"  make  sure  his  "eternal 
life";  a  corruption  that  would  have  been 
impossible  had  the  church  faithfully  taught 
that  eternal  life  hereafter  is  an  impossibility 
except  as  a  continuation  of  the  eternal  kind 
of  life  begun  here,  and  that  saving  faith  is 
not  a  mental  consent  to  participation  in  the 
merits  of  Christ's  death,  but  a  reception  of 
and  communion  with  a  risen,  present  Lord — 
a  faith  utterly  absurd  to  claim  unless  it 
redeems  us  from  sinfulness  to  a  higher  life. 
So  therefore  this  is  not  a  theologic  hair-split- 
ting; it  pertains  to  a  mistake  that  has  dis- 
graced and  caricatured  Christianity  for  ages, 
117 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

eating  out  the  very  heart  of  its  purpose;  it 
pertains  to  a  truth  which  alone  can  make 
Christianity  a  real  power  and  blessing  upon 
earth. 

The  world  has  been  slow  to  grasp  "the 
mind  that  was  in  Christ."  For  ages  we  have 
lived  under  the  shadow  of  the  cross.  For 
two  long  chiliads  have  men  made  the  "whole- 
some words  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ"  ^  to  be 
morbid,  deathly,  and  benumbing  sentences  by 
which  a  wicked  race  was  to  thread  its  uncer- 
tain way  to  a  better  land.  A  far-off  God  was 
worshiped,  while  all  the  time  He  was  near.  A 
dead  Christ  WciS  trusted,  while  all  the  time  He 
was  alive.  A  remote  heaven  was  sung  and 
sighed  for,  while  all  the  time  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  was  "at  hand."  Through  the  long 
night  of  mediaevalism  the  world  was  saying, 
"Who  shall  ascend  into  heaven,  to  bring  Christ 
down,  or  who  shall  descend  into  the  deep  to 
bring  Christ  again  from  the  dead?"  Yet  all 
the  time  Paul's  word  thundered  in  vain  against 
an  iron  system  of  theology,  "The  Word  is 
nigh  thee,  even  in  thy  mouth,  and  in  thy 
heart.  "^  We  have  lingered  too  long  at  the 
cross,  chilled  there  by  the  despair  of  an 
Augustinian  theology  that  seemed  so  true 
because  it  was  as  deeply  wretched  and  black 
as  the  human  heart  itself.      Let  us  be  up  and 

1  I  Tim.  vi.  3:    "  healthful  words."  »  Rom.  x.  6-8. 

118 


THE   SHADOW    OF   THE    CROSS 

go  on  to  the  open  tomb,  go  on  to  meet  a 
risen  Lord,  who  ever  liveth,  whose  presence 
abides  with  us,  who  is  come  again  that  our 
joy  may  be  full.  The  cross  has  been  degraded 
to  be  a  superstitious  sign,  a  talisman  to  ward 
off  the  devils  of  another  world.  By  reducing 
salvation  to  a  mere  "plan"  for  obtaining 
security  for  the  soul  after  death,  there  was 
made  possible  all  the  grotesque  instances  of 
vile  lives  going  out  clinging  to  the  sign  of  the 
crucifix,  assured  by  priests  that  "faith"  would 
surely  "save."  Upon  this  theory  was  built 
the  system  of  indulgences,  of  purgatory,  of 
masses  for  the  dead.  Common  sense  pro- 
tested, and  was  told  to  be  quiet  and  adore. 
Reason  refused  to  accept  this  death's-head 
theology  and  it  was  insulted  and  trampled 
into  silence.  It  was  held  that  man  could  not 
understand  divine  things,  that  it  was  natural 
that  mere  human  intelligence  should  be  un- 
able to  comprehend  God's  great  "scheme." 
"It  is  certain  because  it  is  impossible,"  said 
a  certain  father.^  But  whereas  salvation 
merely  by  a  scheme  to  escape  from  future 
punishment  thus  insults  all  that  natural  reason 
tells  us  about  God,  on  the  contrary  salvation 
from  a  sinful  life  and  its  consequences  by  the 
power  of  a  living  and  immanent  Saviour  is  most 
sweet  and  acceptable  to  what  common  sense 

*  Tertullian.    Commonly  misquoted:    "  I  believe  because  it  is 
impossible." 

119 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

tells  us  ought  to  be  the  nature  of  God.  Sal- 
vation by  the  resurrection,  by  a  living,  ever- 
present  God,  squares  with  Greek  philosophy, 
with  Oriental  longings,  and  with  all  the  high- 
est expression  of  men  everywhere,  while 
salvation  from  future  pangs  by  an  atonement- 
scheme  alone  is  artificial,  unreasonable,  and 
unscriptural.  The  latter  was  made,  not  by 
the  apostles,  but  by  Augustine  and  his  fellows, 
who  constructed  their  theology  as  special 
pleaders  with  the  distinct  object  of  bolster- 
ing the  claims  of  the  church;  it  was  perpetu- 
ated by  the  church  after  the  Reformation 
simply  because  it  had  acquired  so  much 
strength  during  its  long  growth  through  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  had  so  struck  its  deadly 
roots  through  all  theology  that  they  were 
unable  to  get  rid  of  it  in  their  day.  The 
time  has  now,  however,  surely  come  when  we 
can  begin  to  see  "the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus" — 
to  get  back  to  Christ,  back  to  Clement  of 
Alexandria  and  the  early  Greek  Church 
fathers. 

We  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  root  and  cause 
of  all  the  morbidities  of  religion  in  the  past  has 
been  the  making  of  the  "eternal  life"  of  the 
Scriptures  to  mean  only  something  beginning 
beyond  the  grave.  This  is  the  dead  fly, 
which,  if  it  be  in  the  ointment  of  any  concep- 
tion of  the  Gospel,  causeth  it  to  stink.     Given 


THE   SHADOW   OF   THE    CROSS 

eternal  life  after  death  only,  and  all  the 
distortions  naturally  appear,  such  as  salva- 
tion by  God's  machinery,  instead  of  by  God 
Himself,  a  low  and  legalizing  fear  of  "the 
judgment  seat,"  a  false  importance  to  death- 
bed scenes  and  repentances,  a  vast  church 
professing  to  guarantee  believers  security, 
and  the  whole  "insurance"  idea  of  the  Gos- 
pel. But  when  eternal  life  is  a  thing  to  be 
here  and  now  imparted  by  a  present  Deity, 
when  this  life  is  called  eternal  not  because 
it  begins  after  time,  but  because  it  is  so 
divine  in  its  nature  that  death  cannot  affect 
it,  then  we  perceive  none  of  these  evil  effects. 
Eternal  life  as  a  future  blessing  lays  emphasis 
upon  our  acceptance  of  an  artificial  divine 
scheme,  and  morality  is  of  little  consequence 
compared  with  a  saving  faith;  but  eternal  life 
as  an  immediate  condition  to  be  entered  upon 
by  coming  under  the  power  of  a  risen  Saviour 
is  fruitful  of  good  works,  always  abounding 
in  the  work  of  the  Lord.^  One  quarrels  with 
morality  as  a  rival;  the  other  shames  morality 
by  a  righteousness  which  "exceeds  that  of 
the  Scribes  and  Pharisees."^  One  is  pessi- 
mistic, viewing  the  world  as  an  evil  to  be 
escaped  from;  the  other  is  optimistic,  going 

*  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  it  is  as  a  conclusion  and  climax  of 
his  mighty  argument  for  the  resurrection  that  Paul  exclaims: 
'^Therefore,  my  beloved  brethren,"  etc.     i  Cor.  xv.  58. 

»  Matt.  V.  20. 

121 


THE   RELIGION   OF  TO-MORROW 

forth  in  supernal  strength  to  overcome  the 
world  even  as  He  overcame.  One  looks  only 
on  the  earth  as  a  vile  planet  to  be  burnt  at 
last  by  an  angry  Maker  disgusted  with  His 
failure;  the  other  contemplates  this  globe  as 
only  waiting  for  the  manifestation  of  the  sons 
of  God  in  order  to  be  wholly  redeemed  and 
made  glorious.  The  one  gazes  paralyzed  on 
sin  and  the  dead  Christ  it  has  slain;  the  other 
rises  with  streaming  eyes  from  the  open  tomb 
to  cry  out  in  joyous  hope,  "My  Lord  and 
my  God!" 

The  Reformation  was  at  bottom  this  deser- 
tion of  the  dead  for  the  living  Christ.  The 
crucifix  was  the  symbol  of  the  life  of  the 
church  from  the  beginning  of  the  predomi- 
nancy ot  the  Latin  bishops  until  Luther. 
The  reformers  began  the  work  of  leading  a 
despairing  world  away  from  its  agonizing 
prostration  before  this  awful  figure  out  into 
the  newness  of  a  Christ-filled  world.  They 
themselves  suspected  not  the  extent  of  their 
work,  and  builded  better  than  they  knew. 
Luther,  Calvin,  Knox,  Wesley,  and  the  others 
clung  more  or  less  tenaciously  to  the  old  land- 
marks of  human  tradition,  and  were  wise  in  so 
doing,  as  the  transition  was  so  immense  that 
it  could  only  be  made  gradually.  But  more 
and  more  in  this  age  are  the  signs  apparent  of 
a  longing   for  a   return   to   the  simplicity  of 

122 


THE    SHADOW    OF   THE    CROSS 

Christ.  More  and  more  is  the  idea  of  a  risen 
and  immanent  Lord  pervading  the  churches. 
The  great  revival  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
in  its  central  themes  of  holiness  and  experi- 
mental religion,  showed  how  the  mighty  heart 
of  man  was  rising  to  the  apprehension  of  a 
personally  acting  Saviour.  The  leaders  of 
that  revival,  although  unable  to  swing  clear 
from  the  theological  system  that  Rome  had 
fastened  upon  all  our  conceptions  of  the 
work  of  Christ,  still  poured  forth  such  a  wealth 
of  passionate  feeling  in  their  preachment  and 
in  their  hymns,  that  the  world  was  made  to 
see  that  "the  Lord  is  risen  indeed. "  The  old 
system  cannot  stand  long  against  such  singing 
as  this  of  Charles  Wesley: 

"My  soul  breaks  out  in  strong  desire 

The  perfect  bliss  to  prove, 
My  longing  heart  is  all  on  fire 

To  be  dissolved  in  love. 
Give  me  Thyself;  from  every  boast, 

From  every  wish  set  free; 
Let  all  I  am  in  Thee  be  lost, 

But  give  Thyself  to  me. 
Thy  gifts t  alas!  cannot  suffice. 

Unless  Thyself  be  given  ; 
Thy  Presence  makes  my  paradise. 

And  where  Thou  art  is  heaven^ 

The  great  revivals  which  characterize  the 
life    of    modern     evangelical    churches    have 
taken  on  more  and   more  of  the  tone  of  the 
123 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

present,  living  Saviour,  although  much  of  the 
actual  indoctrinating  still  keeps  the  old 
Augustinian  formulas.  The  world  is  shaking 
off  as  a  horrid  dream  the  thoughts  of  a  far-off 
God  with  a  mechanical,  legal  plan  of  salva- 
tion, and  of  a  salvation  referring  to  the  dim 
future  only.  We  can  never  altogether  cease 
to  respect  the  Latin  church,  because  it  held 
for  the  world  through  the  Dark  Ages  the 
body  of  Christ;  but  we  are  looking  at  it  now 
as  one  who  looked  at  the  tomb  of  Jesus,  say- 
ing, "Come,  see  the  place  where  the  Lord 
lay."  We  are  realizing  the  second  advent, 
the  coming  again  of  a  risen  Christ  into  men's 
thinking  and  practice,  after  for  long  ages  He 
has  been  to  us  but  a  dead  victim,  a  sacrificial 
lamb,  a  mere  incident  in  the  divine  machinery 
of  the  atonement.  The  light  of  life  is  radiat- 
ing throughout  the  world.  Look  no  more 
into  your  plans  and  schemes  you  have  marked 
out  for  Him.  He  is  not  there;  He  is  risen. 
He  is  coming  now  into  all  civilization,  govern- 
ment, philosophy,  and  dreams  of  men.  **Even 
so  come.  Lord  Jesus!" 

It  is  Easter  morning  in  theology.  Throw 
away  your  crucifixes!  Receive  ye  the  Holy 
Ghost! 


124 


SUGGESTIONS 

It  is  Easter  morning  in  theology. 

It  is  the  trivialities  of  religion  that  have  been  the 
storm  centers  of  discussion. 

The  spiritual  is  always  the  true  meaning  of  any 
word — the  material  is  the  symbolic  meaning. 

The  upper  thought  is  the  true  one. 

The  keynote  of  apostolic  preaching  was  the  resur- 
rection, rather  than  the  cross. 

The  blood  of  the  dying  Christ  is  of  no  avail  unless 
applied  by  the  living  Christ. 

At  bottom,  the  Reformation  was  a  turning  from 
the  dead  to  the  living  Christ. 

The  immanence  of  God  is  the  watchword  of  the 
future. 

We  respect  the  mediaeval  church  for  preserving 
for  us  the  body  of  Christ;  but  we  are  coming  to  look 
on  it  as  one  looked  at  the  tomb  of  Jesus  and  exclaimed: 
"Come,  see  the  place  where  the  Lord  lay." 

We  are  realizing  the  second  advent. 

Buddhism  holds  that  desire  is  sin,  existence  is  de- 
sire, hence  to  destroy  sin,  existence  must  cease;  at 
this  fundamental  point  it  touches  Christianity,  only 
the  latter  teaches  that  existence  may  be  transformed, 
it  need  not  be  destroyed. 


CHAPTER   VI 

DEFINITIONS 


Scripture  Terms  for  the  Operation  of  Religion  are 
Explainable  only  by  Assuming  it  to  be  God's  Per- 
sonal Influence 


"Les  jans6nistes  font  la  grace  un  espece  de  qua- 
tri^me  personne  de  la  sainte  Trinity.  Saint  Paul  et 
Saint  Augustin,  trop  ^tudi^s,  ou  ^tudi^s  uniquement, 
ont  tout  perdu,  si  on  ose  le  dire.  Au  lieu  de  grace, 
dites  aide,  secours,  influence  divine,  celeste  ros^e;  on 
s'entend  alors.  Ce  mot  est  comme  un  talisman.  .  .  . 
Personnifier  les  mots  est  un  mal  funeste  en  th€- 
ologie."— JOUBERT,  Pensees,  35.     (Quoted  from  Allen.) 

"By  grace  are  ye  saved  through  faith."  —  Paul, 
Eph.  ii.  8. 

"Men  are  apt  to  conclude  that  the  'righteousness 
of  Christ'  must  denote  something  separate  and  dis- 
tinct from  the  indwelling  of  the  Ho^y  Spirit,  bringing 
forth  fruit  unto  holiness,  because  they  fear  to  confound 
together  what  they  habitually,  though  unconsciously, 
consider  two  different  agents."— Whately,  Difficul- 
ties in  the  Writings  of  St.  Paul,  p.  191. 


CHAPTER   VI 

Viewing  religion  as  the  personal  influence 
of  God  in  us,  it  will  be  perhaps  helpful  to 
restate  the  definitions  of  some  of  the  princi- 
pal terms,  the  phrases  and  words,  in  which 
the  Scriptures  and  common  theology  describe 
its  operation  in  us.  These  terms  have  been 
so  much  bandied  to  and  fro  in  religious  con- 
troversy that  they  have  come  to  have  artifi- 
cial meanings.  Or  rather,  we  have  become 
accustomed  to  use  them  as  a  kind  of  algebraic 
signs,  standing  for  certain  materials  for  debate 
or  for  unquestioning  faith;  as  smooth  coins 
passing  current  in  our  thought  and  speech, 
yet  having  the  inscriptions  thereon  so  blurred 
that  we  rarely  ever  look  to  see  what  exactly 
they  are.  Let  us  therefore  take  a  few  of  the 
more  important  of  them,  and  divesting  our- 
selves as  nearly  as  may  be  from  all  precon- 
ceived or  traditional  notions,  try  to  find  out 
what  is  actually  meant  by  them.  Let  us  take 
the  point  of  view  that  religion  is  God's  influ- 
ence in  us,  and,  assuming  this  as  a  working 
hypothesis,  let  us  see  what  these  common 
terms  mean  to  common  sense. 

In  the  first  place,  it  becomes  plain,  from 
129 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

this  view-point,  that  any  gift  or  effect  or 
merit  or  any  such  thing  transferred  to  us  from 
God  means  nothing  at  all  unless  we  keep  in 
mind  that  God's  personality  goes  with  it. 
There  is  no  gift  without  the  Giver,  no  blessing 
apart  from  the  Blesser,  no  promise  without  the 
Promiser.  All  His  benefits  to  and  in  us  are 
but  phases  of  His  person  as  it  bears  to  us  and 
works  by  its  influence  in  us.  We  get  the  most 
valuable  things,  not  because  He  does  or  has 
done  something,  but  we  get  such  things  from 
Him  directly  as  doing  or  having  done  some- 
thing.^    This  is  a  very  important  distinction, 

^  This  is  as  true  in  material  as  in  spiritual  concerns.  We  do 
not  get  bread  upon  our  table  because  God  instituted  certain  laws 
of  nature  by  which  wheat  grows,  and  so  lorth;  He,  after  having 
set  such  laws  in  motion,  going  off  somewhere  and  leaving  them  to 
run  themselves.  But  God  does  personally  and  intelligently  make 
the  wheat  grow,  *' God  giveth  the  mcrease,"  God  is  in  the  oven 
changing  the  dough  by  heat  into  wholesome  food.  There  is  no 
slightest  beat  of  the  sparrow's  wing,  no  deviation  of  the  motion  of 
a  mote  floating  in  the  sunbeam,  no  alteration  of  the  stream's  eddy 
nor  of  the  air's  current,  but  is  directly,  intelligently  and  person- 
ally attended  to  by  Him  who  thinks  of  and  is  conscious  of  all 
things  at  once  even  as  we  are  conscious  of  and  can  think  of  but 
one  thing  at  a  time.  This  is  the  immanence  of  Deity  in  nature. 
It  is  not  that  God  made  gravitation,  cohesion,  and  the  like,  but 
that  these  are  phases  of  His  utilization  of  matter.  He  did  not 
make  a  universe  and  then  retire  to  sit  somewhere  and  watch  it 
afar  off.  But  the  operation  of  force  in  matter  is  the  process  of  His 
making.  The  one  view  is  a  God-less  materiality;  the  other  a  God- 
/■«// organism.  The  one  view  assumes  matter  as  a  fact,  spirit  as 
an  explanation  or  phenomenon  of  tliat  fact;  the  other  takes  the 
Spirit  to  be  the  reality,  and  matter  its  mode  of  expression. 

A  similar  difference  lies  between  the  common  (the  Augustiniaa 
or  Latin)  theology  and  the  New  Testament  (or  Greek)  theology. 
One  conceives  that  the  value  of  the  Gospel  lies  in  the  perfection  of 
the  plan  God  has  made,  which  is  so  complete  that  of  itself  it  oper- 
ates to  save;  the  other,  that  the  Gospel  is  merely  a  light  shed  upon 
the  method  God  is  taking  personally  to  redeem  men.  By  the 
Latin  scheme  God  could  very  well  have  commissioned  some  angel 
to  attend  to  the  working  out  of  the  details  of  His  redemption 
plan,  to  distribute  the  rewards  and  punishments,  to  bestow  grace 
and  balance  the  accounts;  but  by  the  apostolic  scheme,  more 
truly  apprehended  by  the  Greek  fathers,  God  is  the  immanent, 
pervasive,  omnipresent  personality  who  Himself  does  all. 

130 


DEFINITIONS 

and  absolutely  necessary  to  our  getting  a 
rational  grasp  of  Christian  doctrines.  We 
must  take  the  view  here  set  forth  if  we  wish 
intelligently  to  wed  reason  to  faith,  and  not 
sadly  to  dismiss  reason  because  of  faith.  We 
have  so  long  been  taught  that  Christianity  is 
merely  some  sort  of  plan,  out  of  which  cer- 
tain benefits  accrue  to  us,  that  we  need  now 
to  see  it  as  a  personal  influence  of  Deity, 
working  indeed  by  a  plan,  as  all  God's  works 
are  orderly  and  by  law,  but  in  itself  of  reality 
a  Force  or  Power,  not  displayed  for  us,  but 
in  us. 

Looking  at  our  religion  in  this  light,  we 
observe,  before  taking  up  the  terms  in  detail 
that  it  reveals  it  as  a  wondrously  simple 
thing — not  simple  in  the  sense  of  small  or 
definable,  but  simple  in  the  sense  of  being  co- 
herent, a  unity,  and  not  confusing.  "Martha, 
Martha,"  said  the  Master,  "thou  art  careful 
and  troubled  about  many  things;  but  one 
thing  is  needful."  '  The  Christian  has  not  a 
thousand  details  to  worry  over;  he  has  but 
one  thing  to  do,  to  "keep  himself  in  the  love 
of  God."^  He  is  like  the  farmer,  who  takes 
no  thought  about  the  making  of  leaves  and 
tassels  and  ears  on  the  corn,  but  only  tends 
faithfully  the  life  of  the  seed  and  plant,  know- 
ing that  so  it  will  best  make  its  own  foliage 

*  Luke  X.  41.  '  Jude2i. 

131 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

and  grain.  Or  he  is  like  the  vineyard-keeper, 
whose  sole  Jtask  is  to  keep  his  vines  healthy, 
leaving  them  to  work  out  their  own  fruit. 
There  are  many  fruits,  but  one  life;  many 
evidences,  but  one  power;  many  forms,  but 
one  spirit.  This  was  Jesus'  meaning,  it  may 
be,  when  He  admonished  us  to  take  no  thought 
about  what  we  eat  and  drink,  *'for  is  not  the 
life  more  than  meat,  or  the  body  than  rai- 
ment?" and  when  He  asked  which  of  us  by  tak- 
ing thought  could  add  one  cubit  to  his 
stature.*  The  personal  influence  of  God  being 
the  essence  of  religion,  all  there  is  for  us  to 
attend  to  is  to  strive  constantly  to  allow  it 
fuller  access  into  us.^ 

If  this  in  truth  is  the  essence  of  religion, 
we  would  naturally  suppose  the  New  Testa- 
ment writers  would  have  had  some  word  for 
it,  some  term  to  express  that  influence  viewed 
as  a  concept  apart  from  the  being  of  God 
Himself.  Just  such  a  term  we  find  in  the  word 
*'grace.  "^      The    apostolic   signification   of 

»  Matt.  vi.  25. 

'  The  gist  of  the  incident  of  the  rich  young  man,  in  Mark  x.  21, 
it  seems  to  me,  is  often  overlooked;  it  is,  that  what  he  needed 
most  of  all  was  the  Master's  personal  infiuence;  "  One  thingihou 
lackest— follow  Me.'' 

'  Grace,  in  Greek  Charts,  the  root  meaning  of  which  is  "that 
which  gives  joy  or  satisfaction."  From  this  the  meaning  branched 
into  I.  pleasantness  of  manner;  2,  charm  or  elegance  of  person; 
3,  thanks,  or  an  acknowledgment  for  a  kindness  done;  4,  honor, 
fame,  reward,  etc.,  because  these  are  pleasant;  etc.  In  the 
plural,  Charites,  it  came  to  mean  "those  goddesses  through 
whose  favor  agreeable  qualities  and  personal  charms  are  bestowed 
on  mortals";  their  names  are  given  in  Pindar  as  Euphrosyne, 
Aglaia,  and  Thaleia,  or  Cheerfulness,  Splendor,  and  Abundance. 

132 


DEFINITIONS 

*'grace"  is  that  of  the  person  of  God  radiating 
toward  and  into  us.  It  is  one  of  the  new 
words  of  Christianity,  or  rather  an  old  word 
transferred  to  be  a  vehicle  of  this  new 
thought.  Heretofore  "grace"  had  meant  favor 
or  the  attitude  of  kindness  and  benignancy 
in  any  one.  And  as  God,  when  He  was 
revealed  in  Christ,  showed  Himself  so  loving 
and  forgiving,  no  better  term  than  "loving 
favor"  or  "grace"  was  found  to  use  as  ex- 
pressing His  bearing  toward  us. 

When  God,  as  an  immanent  Spirit  in  His 
religion,  was  reasoned  out  of  theology  by  the 
logic-mongers  of  the  Latin  church,  leaving 
only  the  framework  and  scheme  of  salvation 
to  operate  among  men,  while  Deity  Himself 
was  removed  as  a  far-off  Judge,  then,  of 
course,  this  term  shared  the  fate  of  other 
terms.     Being  emptied  of  God,  it  was  filled 

These  were  mayhap  in  Paul's  mind  when  he  set  forth  the  three 


I  am  grateful  to  thee;  Aristoph.  Av.  384.  to  dispense  a  favor; 
Polyb.  2,  5,  to  hsten  through 7?a^/,?^j',-  '^to  talk  charis"  is  used  m 
Xenophon  to  mean  "to  sjpeak  with  any  one  for  the  purpose  of 
conciliating  him";  also  Xenophon  uses'*^«rt  charitoft  emai,  to 
be  in  a  state  of  good-will  or  friendship  with  any  one.  Charis  is  of 
the  same  origin  as,  and  a  kindred  word  to,  the  verb  chairo,  to  be 
joyful;  the  noun  cliarma  (Eng.,  charrn^  a  joy,  or  a  thing  that  pro- 
duces joy;  and  the  adjective  rAtzrz'c^i-,  pleasing. 

The  above  examples  are  given  that  the  reader  may  get  the  real 
flavor  of  the  word  grace,  a  flavor  entirely  different,  it  is  to  be 
feared,  from  that  of  our  common  notion.  The  consummate  flower 
and  force  of  Christian  character  by  which  it  is  to  win  the  world, 
is  its  grace,  that  is,  primarily,  its  agreeableness.  The  root-element 
of  Christianity  is  that  it  brings  yoj.  Morality  is  only  the  means. 
joy  is  the  object.  A  morality  or  righteousness  that  does  not  work 
loveliness  is  not  Christian.  But  we  must  remember  that  the  joy 
and  beauty  of  life  come  only  through  rightness  of  life. 

133 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

with  some  sort  of  mystical,  magic  potency, 
miraculous  and  utterly  incomprehensible  by 
"mere  reason."  It  was  equally,  of  course 
(for  the  church  never  failed  to  claim  for  itself 
what  it  had  robbed  from  God),  held  to  be  in 
the  keeping  of  the  church  and  ministry.  It 
was  transmitted  by  laying  on  of  hands  in  bap- 
tism, confirmation,  and  ordination.  It  entered 
into  men  in  the  sacramental  wafers  and  oils 
and  in  the  sacred  touch  of  priests.  It  passed 
over  into  the  soul  in  absolution;  how  he  never 
could  know,  he  must  simply  believe  it.^  That 
it  was  artificial  and  smacked  of  superstition, 
was  nothing  against  this  view,  for  the  more 
absurd  a  tenet  was,  the  more  merit  was  there 
in  believing  it.  So  dominant  became  this 
idea  that  all  matters  of  religion  were  held  to 
belong  to  ''the  kingdom  of  grace, "^  in  which 
was  no  law  nor  coherence  except  the  decree 
of  a  God  who  was  insulted  when  men  tried  to 
understand  His  ways.  This  kingdom  differed 
from  "the  kingdom  of  nature"  as  much  as 
the  politics  of  the  planet  Mars  would  differ 
from  ours.  And  although  we  have  put  by 
much  of  this  kind  of  feeling  about  religious 
things,  not  a  little  of  the  magical,  vague  ele- 

*  "  The  Jansenists  made  grace  to  be  a  sort  of  Fourth  Person 
of  the  Trinity."— Joubert.  Allen  says:  "  For  the  living  presence 
in  the  soul  of  the  spiritual  Christ,  the  Latins  substituted  an  in- 
animate thing  which  was  designated  in  religion  nomenclature  as 
graced 

2  First  declared  by  Albertus  Magnus,  but  adopted,  systema- 
tized, and  given  popularity  by  Aquinas. 

134  / 


DEFINITIONS 

ment  of  the  thought  about  grace  still  lingers 
in  the  common  understanding. 

Now,  if  we  will  simply  go  back  and  place 
ourselves  in  the  position  of  the  sacred  pen- 
men, and  endeavor  to  use  the  word  with  the 
same  fresh  meaning  they  gave  to  it,  we  can- 
not fail  to  be  helped  to  saner  thought.  Sup- 
pose, for  instance,  we  substitute  the  phrase 
"loving  favor"  for  the  word  "grace"  wher- 
ever it  is  found  in  the  New  Testament.  This 
will  assist  us  to  see  how  the  apostles  regarded 
grace  as  simply  the  influence  of  God's  recon- 
ciled, benignant  face  upon  their  hearts.  The 
word,  as  thus  expressing  the  influence  of  a 
loving  and  helpful  Father,  became  a  part  of 
the  oft-used  apostolic  salutation  and  benedic- 
tion, "Grace  be  unto  you,"  "The  grace  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you  all,"  etc.,^ 
as  if  ever  to  remind  the  people  that  the  cen- 
tral idea  of  the  new  religion  was  the  revela- 
tion of  a  God  who  loves  and  is  kindly  disposed 
to  US-ward.  So,  speaking  of  Jesus,  John  says 
that  while  the  law  came  by  Moses,  "grace  and 
truth  came  by  Jesus  Christ;"  ^  for  in  Him  the 
world  first  saw  God  as  a  benevolent  Father. 
The  law  was  the  personality  of  God  working 
in  men  to  create  the  consciousness  of  sin;  for 
the  law  was  of  course  not  confined  to  nor 
made  by  Moses,  but  was  and  is  a  conviction 

'  Rom.  i.  7;  xvi.  20,  etc.  *  John  i.  17. 

135 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

of  the  hatefulness  of  sinfulness  wherever  man 
exists,  revealing  to  him  his  vileness,  making 
him  condemn  and  loathe  himself.  Moses 
merely  gave  authoritative  and  definite  shape 
to  that  universal  law.  So  then  law  was  one 
phase  of  God's  influence,  grace  was  the  other, 
the  new  phase.  By  God's  person  working  in 
men  as  a  law,  as  an  ideal  of  right  and  purity, 
men  got  the  knowledge  of  sin  as  sin.  By 
God's  person  working  in  men  as  grace,  men 
got  the  knowledge  of  how  to  escape  from  sin. 
The  embodiment  of  the  one  was  the  tables  of 
stone;  of  the  other,  the  man  Christ  Jesus. 

Paul  calls  his  being  set  apart  to  preach  to 
the  Gentiles  the  "dispensation  of  grace, "^ 
because  God's  opening  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
to  non-Jews  was  to  the  Jewish  mind  a  marvel- 
ous act  of  liberality  and  amazing  kindness. 
The  primitive  meaning  of  the  word  comes  out 
in  Paul's  exhortation  to  the  Colossians  to 
sing  with  grace  and  to  use  grace  in  their 
speech,  as  if  he  tells  them  to  use  in  song  and 
sermon  the  same  loving  favor  to  men  that 
God  uses  to  them.^  Peter  calls  the  disciples 
"stewards  of  the  manifold  grace  of  God,"^ 
for  through  them  the  world  is  to  be  made  to 
see  how  kind  and  good  is  God — they  have,  as 
it  were,  God's  kindness  in  their  keeping,  they 
are  responsible   for  how  they  show  it  forth, 

»  Eph.  iii.  2.  «  Col.  iii.  i6;  iv.  6.  ^  i  Pet.  iv.  lo. 

136 


DEFINITIONS 

and  therefore  they  are  to  use  "fervent  char- 
ity" and  "hospitality"  one  to  another."^ 
Again  Peter  says  to  us  that  we  are  to  "grow 
in  grace"  ;^  for  as  the  flower  grows  in  the 
sun's  light,  so  are  we  to  be  developed  by  the 
beams  of  the  divine  love  and  goodness  upon 
and  in  us. 

As  grace  was  the  loving  favor  of  God 
toward  men,  so  "the  Gospel,"  or  the  "good 
news, ' '  was  the  telling  about  that  loving  favor. 
Grace  was  the  thing  itself;  the  Gospel  the 
relating  of  it.  Grace  was  the  fact;  the  Gos- 
pel the  proclamation  of  the  fact.  The  Gospel 
does  not  save,  except  by  a  sort  of  metonymy, 
or  substituting  one  word  for  another  which 
suggests  it;  as  we  say  a  man  keeps  a  good 
table  when  we  mean  he  keeps  good  food  on 
his  table.  It  is  in  this  sense  only  the  Gospel 
is  called  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation; 
for  certainly  merely  informing  a  man  that 
God  is  loving  and  forgiving  will  do  him  no 
good  unless  he  acts  upon  that  information  to 
make  use  of  this  love  and  forgiveness.  Thus 
the  contents  of  the  Gospel  is  the  personal  influ- 
ence of  God;  without  that  contents  it  would 
do  us  no  more  service  than  if  a  man  should 
bring  us  a  bag  of  gold  and  should  give  us  the 
bag  while  he  kept  the  gold. 

As  this  loving  favor  of  God  shines  upon  all 

»  I  Pet.  iv.  8-9.  «  2  Pet.  iii.  i8. 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

men  alike,  bad  and  good,  so  the  Gospel  is  to 
every  creature  without  respect  of  persons. 
Will  not  all  men  therefore  be  saved?  Cer- 
tainly, as  far  as  God  is  concerned  they  will. 
The  same  personal  influence  operates  upon 
the  wicked  and  the  good,  as  the  sun  shines 
and  the  rain  falls  upon  the  just  and  the  un- 
just. And  now  we  come  to  see  how  this 
apprehension  of  religion  as  God's  personal 
influence  sheds  a  striking  light  upon  a  fact 
that  no  other  theory  has  ever  made  reason- 
able— to  wit,  how,  while  God  equally  loves  all 
His  children,  some  of  them  wax  worse  and 
worse  and  may  be  ultimately  lost.  No  theo- 
logical system  can  possibly  explain  this,  as 
a  system.  No  mechanical  scheme  of  salvation 
can  make  it  seem  right.  If  salvation  is  a 
plan  for  getting  men  to  heaven,  then,  while 
God  was  making  it,  reason  refuses  to  under- 
stand why  He  did  not  make  it  so  it  would 
take  the  whole  world  to  heaven.  If  He  ex- 
cepts some  men  from  His  plan,  it  cannot  be 
that  He  loves  all  alike.  Driven  by  this  abso- 
lutely irresistible  logic,  the  church  fathers 
took  refuge  in  the  old  evasion  of  denying  the 
rights  of  reason  to  meddle  with  the  Almighty's 
machinery,  and  invented  the  doctrines  of 
eternal  foreordination  and  reprobation,  that 
some  men  were  made  to  be  saved  and  some 
to  be  damned.  When  intelligence  asked  how 
138 


DEFINITIONS 

a  good  God  could  do  what  no  good  man  would 
do,  it  was  met  with  the  reply:  "Be  still. 
This  is  not  an  affair  of  intelligence.  It  be- 
longs to  the  awful,  mysterious  kingdom  of 
grace."  Let  us  not  judge  these  fathers  too 
harshly.  It  was  the  premises  from  which  they 
began  their  argument  that  misled  them.  Their 
conclusions  were  not  the  result  of  bad  logic, 
but  of  a  wrong  starting-point.  For  religion  is 
not,  as  they  supposed,  a  plan,  but  it  is  the 
workings  of  an  immanent,  ever-present  Deity; 
not  a  mere  consequence  of  a  dead  Saviour's 
sacrifice,  but  the  actual  influence  of  a  risen 
Lord. 

And  note  how  clearly  this  true  theory  lets 
the  light  in  upon  this  dark  problem.  Being 
the  influence  of  a  personality,  it  follows  the 
laws  of  personality,  necessarily.  Now,  it  is 
among  the  commonest  facts  known  to  us  that 
one  can  open  or  close  himself  to  another's 
influence.  Going  among  bad  men,  we  can 
resist  the  evil  effects  of  their  companionship, 
or  we  can  submit,  as  we  choose.  Associating 
with  a  high-minded,  large,  and  courteous 
character,  we  can  rejoice  in  the  influence  of 
him  upon  us,  and  cooperate  with  it  by  our 
will,  or  we  can  set  ourselves  against  it.  And 
it  is  well  known  to  all  who  have  any  powers 
of  observation,  that  if  we  are  brought  in  con- 
tact with  a  noble  and  generous  nature,  and  if 
139 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

we  do  not  yield  to  the  play  of  his  character 
upon  us,  if  we  do  not  assent  to  his  influence 
in  us,  we  are  almost  invariably  driven  to  the 
opposite  extreffie^  and  become  even  more  hate- 
ful and  spiteful  than  we  were  before.  Such 
was  the  effect  of  Jesus  on  the  Pharisees;  He 
actually  made  them  worse;  they  became 
more  firmly  set  in  their  bigotry  and  self  con- 
ceit because  of  Him.  It  is  as  if  a  good  man 
comes  to  us  as  a  force  the  heart  instinctively 
recognizes,  a  force  which,  if  not  surrendered 
to,  arouses  all  the  opposition  in  us  and  actu- 
ally develops  still  further  meanness  in  us. 

One  does  not  have  to  be  a  theologian,  there- 
fore, to  understand  this  "mystery  of  iniquity. " 
Just  plain  common  sense  is  all  that  is  needed. 
When  we  get  the  right  point  of  view  we  can 
see  very  much  further  into  the  great  prob- 
lem of  lost  humanity.  It  is  said,  to  give  one 
illustration,  when  Pharaoh  refused  to  let  the 
Israelites  go,  after  he  had  been  frightened 
into  a  promise  by  the  display  of  Moses' 
power,  that  "God  hardened  Pharaoh's  heart." 
It  was  not  the  devil,  nor  Pharaoh  himself,  but 
God  that  hardened  his  heart.  But  how  could 
a  good  God  do  this?  After  being  hardened 
was  he  not  then  less  to  blame  for  the  next  lie? 
The  plain  explanation  is  in  this  law  above 
referred  to — that  it  is  in  the  nature  of  human 
beings  to  harden  when  they  resist  softening 
140 


DEFINITIONS 

influences.  Nature  is  God;  and  nature  drives 
further  down  those  who  struggle  against  going 
up.  So  Paul  says  that  "even  as  they  did  not 
like  to  retain  God  in  their  knowledge,  God 
gave  them  over  to  a  reprobate  mind."  ^ 

This  brings  us  to  the  next  term  that  figures 
so  largely  in  Christian  speech,  "faith." 
Faith  is  merely  the  attitude  of  the  man  toward 
grace,  the  influence  of  God.  Grace  is  God's 
personality  acting  upon  us;  faith  is  the  way 
we  receive  that  personality.  Grace  is  the  air 
around  us,  faith  the  opening  of  a  window. 
Grace  is  the  sunshine;  faith  is  removing  the 
shutter.  Grace  is  food;  faith,  eating.  Grace, 
water;  faith,  drinking.  Now,  a  great  many 
have  stumbled  over  faith,  as  they  have  over 
grace.  They  have  been  unable  to  rid  them- 
selves of  the  notion  that  it  is  some  sort  of 
magic  talent,  a  fifth  sense,  supplied  miracu- 
lously to  some  peculiarly  religious  tempera- 
ments. There  never  was  a  greater  mistake. 
Faith  is  "the  gift  of  God,"  ^  but  it  is  given  to 
every  one.  Nowhere  in  the  Bible  are  we 
taught  to  pray  for  faith,  and  nowhere  is  it 
promised  to  give  it  if  we  ask.  When  some 
did  pray  for  it  we  do  not  find  the  Master 
answered."     Some  have  the  idea  that  faith  is 

»  Rom.  i.  28. 

*  It  is  a  question,  however,  whether  it  is  faith  or  grace  which 
is  called  "  the  gift  of  God  "  in  Eph.  ii.  8. 

3  Luke  xvii.  5-6.  "  The  apostles  said  unto  the  Lord,  Increase 
our  faith.    And  the  Lord  said,  If  ye  had  faith  as  a  grain  of  mus- 

141 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

a  kind  of  feeling  or  spiritual  substance  that 
God  hands  down  to  seekers.  But  while  we 
are  told  to  seek  Him  to  find  grace,  we  are 
never  told  to  go  to  Him  for  faith.  On  the 
contrary  we  are  distinctly  commanded  to 
have  faith,  as  though  any  one  could  use  it  if 
he  would.  The  reason  of  this  is  that  faith  is 
a  faculty,  just  as  sight  and  hearing.  It 
would  be  absurd  to  close  our  eyes  and  pray 
for  sight  when  God  has  already  given  us  the 
power  to  see.  If  you  want  to  hear,  listen; 
do  not  go  on  clamoring  for  hearing,  but  keep 
still  and  hear.  If  you  want  to  see,  look;  do 
not  complain  of  lack  of  seeing,  but  see.  If 
you  wish  to  know  God,  to  feel  His  grace,  have 
faith;  do  not  go  on  stultifying  common  sense 
by  praying  for  a  power  which  is  inherent  in 
your  spirit,  as  sight  and  hearing  are  inherent 
in  your  body. 

The  matter  is  so  serious  that  it  behooves 
us  to  make  it  still  plainer.  Faith  is  the  yield- 
ing of  the  man  to  the  influence  of  God.  It  is 
not  situated  in  the  feelings  or  in  the  intellect, 
but  principally  in  the  will.  Now,  the  will  is 
the  one  most  distinctly  human  part  of  a  man. 
It  is  an  imperial  fragment  of  God,  endowed, 
as  God  is  endowed,  with  absolute  self-mas- 
tery.     It    is    the    only   thing  in   us   that   can 

tard  seed,"  etc.  When  the  father  of  the  boy  afflicted  with  a  dumb 
spirit  prayed:  *'  Lord,  I  believe;  help  Thou  my  unbelief."  no  at- 
tention was  paid  apparently  to  his  request,  but  the  Master  acted 
upon  his  declaration. 

142 


DEFINITIONS 

resist  God;  He  may  change  our  feelings  or 
disorder  our  brain,  but  He  will  never  lay 
finger  of  compulsion  on  the  will.  Looking  at 
the  wills  of  men  we  can  echo  the  Psalmist,  '*I 
said,  ye  are  gods."  It  is  this  that  makes  us 
precious  in  His  sight  above  all  His  other 
creatures;  for  it  is  by  virtue  of  this  we  are 
called  "the  sons  of  God."  Without  it  we 
would  be  only  God's  machines  acting  like 
engines,  or  God's  beasts  acting  from  instinct. 
The  appeal  of  the  Father  is  not  to  our  feel- 
ings, nor  our  understandings,  but  always  to 
our  will;  "Whosoever  will,  let  him  come."* 
Therefore  it  is  for  acts  of  the  will  alone  that 
we  are  responsible.  We  cannot  control  our 
feelings  or  opinions,  except  very  indirectly, 
but  we  can  do  exactly  as  we  please  with  our 
wills. 

Thus  it  is  that  because  faith  is  of  the  will, 
it  is  the  fatal  element.  "Without  faith  it  is 
impossible  to  please  God."  ^  We  are  told  by 
the  departing  Jesus  that  those  who  have  faith 
shall  be  saved,  and  those  who  have  it  not  shall 
be  damned.'  "Through  faith,"  says  Paul, 
"we  are  saved,"*  and  we  are  "justified  by 
faith.'"*  So,  by  instances  that  the  reader's 
memory  can  multiply  by  the  score,  faith  is 
insisted  upon  as  the  one  great  essential  saving 

»  Rev.  xxii,  17.  *  Eph.  ii.  8. 

"  Heb.  xi.  6.  «  Rom.  v.  i. 

'  Mark  xvi.  16. 

.    H3 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

act  of  the  human  spirit.  All  things  else  God 
will  give  us;  not  this.  Jesus  Christ  is  called 
our  peace,  our  justification,  our  sanctifica- 
tion,  and  all  our  other  blessings;  He  is  not 
called  our  faith.  Faith  is  distinctly,  purely 
ours.  Why?  Simply  because  it  is  the  willing- 
ness of  the  man  to  receive  the  influence  of 
God;  it  is  man's  consent  to  God's  work  in 
him;  it  is  man's  cooperation  with  the  immanent 
Spirit's  operation  in  him.  To  go  back  to  our 
old  terms,  religion  being  the  personal  influ- 
ence of  God,  faith  is  the  man's  allowing  that 
influence  to  work  in  him. 

When  we  come  to  examine  the  Scripture 
usages  of  faith  we  shall,  however,  find  the 
word  employed  with  a  variety  of  shades  of 
meaning;  but  they  are  all  easily  traceable  by 
common  sense  and  dignified  laws  of  interpre- 
tation to  the  one  meaning  insisted  upon  above 
as  the  main  signification.  Every  word,  and 
especially  a  word  of  spiritual  import,  branches 
off  into  many  secondary  meanings  according 
as  the  different  parts  of  its  significance  are 
respectively  to  be  emphasized.^ 

When  it  is  said  that  faith  is  of  the  will  alone 

'  Thus  the  word  "see"  means  to  behold  with  the  eye;  but, 
again,  with  the  mind's  eye,  that  is,  to  understand;  and  again,  to 
follow  with  the  attention,  being  thus  used  in  Shakespeare;  and 
again,  to  visit,  as  "to  see  a  friend";  and  again  to  experience,  as 
"to  see  military  service"  ;  and  again  to  accompany,  as  "to  see 
one  aboard  the  cars";  and  again,  to  help,  as  "to  see  him 
through";  and  again,  to  take  care  of,  as  in  Chaucer,  "God  see 
you";  and  again,  when  the  word  descends  to  colloquialisms,  to 
tind  out,  as  "  I  will  see  if  this  has  been  done  "  ;  or,  in  gambling,  to 

144 


DEFINITIONS 

it  is  not  meant  there  is  no  intellectual  ele- 
ment in  it;  for  man's  being  is  not  put  up  in 
separate  sections,  each  distinct  from  the 
others,  but  will,  intellect,  and  feeling  are 
interwoven.  Therefore  we  sometimes  find 
the  intellectual  phase  emphasized,  and  faith 
is  used  in  the  sense  of  accepting  Christ  and 
His  Gospel  as  true.  For  certainly  we  cannot 
be  influenced  by  any  man  or  thing  except  we 
consider  them  to  be  realities;  none  is  affected 
by  an  idle  tale.  Some  there  be  who  take  evil 
advantage  of  this  statement,  saying:  *'I  am 
not  convinced  of  the  historical  verity  of  the 
account  of  Jesus  in  the  gospels;  hence  I  am 
excusable  for  having  no  faith."  But  this  is 
making  the  intellectual  side  the  only  side  of 
faith;  whereas  the  most  important  side  is  the 
will  side.  Such  a  person,  even  doubtful  of 
the  Gospel's  accuracy,  certainly  admits  in 
himself  a  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  a  feeling 
of  Ought;  and  this  is  the  voice  of  God  in  all 
souls,  though  it  is  more  or  less  covered  with 
human  imperfection.  Now  let  him  open  his 
heart  to  as  much  of  God  as  he  does  believe  in, 
this  conscience  within  him,  and  follow  that; 
let  him  consecrate  himself  always  to  obey  the 
highest,   noblest    impulses    and    to    renounce 

meet  and  accept  a  bet;  and  so  forth.  But  all  of  these  senses  in 
which  the  word  is  used  are  easily  traceable  to  the  one  original 
sense  of  being  aware  of  an  object  by  the  eye.  In  like  manner  the 
diverging  significations  of  faith  are  manifest  offspring  of  the  one 
parent  signification,  that  is,  the  opening  of  the  soul  to  the  influ- 
ence of  God. 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

the  wrong  and  base,  and  so  doing  he  will 
surely  be  led  to  the  perception  of  the  grace 
and  beauty  of  the  perfect  face  of  God  in 
Christ  Jesus;  thus  "the  Father  draws  him  to 
Christ."^  The  intellect  is  a  slippery  and 
easily  confused  thing,  ethically;  it  acts  truly 
only  when  clarified  by  a  firm  will  obeying  the 
noblest  convictions.  Thus  Christ:  "If  any 
man  do  His  will,  he  shall  know  the  doctrine. "  ^ 
Some  others  unduly  emphasize  the  sentimen- 
tal side  of  faith,  making  it  a  matter  of  feel- 
ing; and  as  feelings  come  and  go  like  the 
wind  so  they  .lelplessly  rejoice  if  they  feel  con- 
fidence and  mourn  if  they  feel  it  not.  But 
it  is  wrong  to  put  feeling,  one  of  the  maids 
of  honor,  upon  the  throne  of  will,  the  king; 
from  such  usurpation  always  results  anarchy. 
Religion  is  not  a  matter  of  temperament,  else 
certainly  God  would  have  made  all  men  alike 
in  this  respect;  and  because  He  made  all 
kinds  of  dispositions,  grave  and  gay,  quiet 
and  energetic,  visionary  and  pragmatic,  credu- 
lous and  skeptical,  enthusiastic  and  conser- 
vative, it  is  shown  that  He  intended  one  kind 
as  well  as  another  to  have  faith  with  ease. 
So  among  Christ's  apostles  were  impulsive 
Peter  and  doubting  Thomas,  childlike  Nath- 
aniel and  speculative  Philip,  sensitive  John 
and   practical   James.      It  is  not  harder   for 

'  John  vi.  44.  '  John  vii,  17. 

146 


DEFINITIONS 

some  dispositions  to  be  Christian  than  for 
others;  it  is  a  reflection  upon  our  Maker's 
justice  to  say  so.  It  is  not  harder  for  one 
man  to  open  his  heart  to  God  than  it  is  for 
another;  but  it  certainly  seems  to  be  when 
we  conceive  of  religion  as  a  set  of  rules  or  a 
mere  scheme  of  dogma^  to  be  obeyed  in  the  one 
case,  to  be  mentally  assented  to  in  the  other. 
But  religion  being  a  divine  influence  of  a 
Spirit  immanent  in  us  and  around  us,  it  mixes 
as  well  with  one  sort  of  constitution  and 
frame  of  mind  as  with  another. 

Faith  being  the  degree  to  which  we  open  to 
God's  influence,  it  is  made  the  measure  of 
His  work  in  us.  Thus  Jesus  in  His  miracles 
often  said:  "According  to  your  faith  be  it 
unto  you,"  or  some  such  phrase.*  Peter,  with 
his  whole  being  alive  to  Christ's  influence, 
walked  on  the  waves,  but  as  doubt  closed  the 
door  of  his  soul  the  power  of  God  left  him, 
and  he  sank.^  Of  the  ruler,  Jesus  said  He 
had  not  found  so  great  faith  as  his  in  Israel, 
for  that  man  was  singularly  frank  and  sincere 
in  his  taking  as  a  matter  of  course  the  divine 
power  of  the  Master.'  Faith  is  the  gauge  of 
development,  we  proceed  "from  faith  to 
faith,"*  growing  just  as  we  admit  Christ's 
influence  fully  into  our  lives. 

*  Matt.  ix.  29,  etc.  '  Matt,  viii,  10. 

*  Matt.  xiv.  29.  *  Rom.  i.  17. 

147 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

Take  now  a  few  passages  of  Scripture  that 
bring  out  the  varying  shades  of  this  one 
thought.  "Justification  by  faith,"  the  war- 
cry  of  the  Reformation,  means  not  justifica- 
tion by  mentally  assenting  to  a  scheme  of 
salvation,  but  made  to  be  just  persons  because 
we  are  willing  to  receive  God's  Spirit  into 
ourselves  and  cooperate  with  Him.  "The 
just  shall  live  by  faith"  ^ — that  is,  not  by  try- 
ing to  obey  a  list  of  rules  in  the  law,  but  by 
receiving  God.  It  is  this  that  makes  life  in 
us ;  for  we  get  eternal  life  not  by  our  acts, 
but  by  taking  into  our  souls  the  bread  of  life. 
So  Jesus:  "He  that  believeth  on  Me  shall 
never  thirst,"^  and,  "He  that  believeth  on 
Me  hath  everlasting  life. "  ^  He  uses  "believ- 
ing on  Him"  and  "eating  the  bread  or  drink- 
ing the  water  of  life"  interchangeably  in  the 
sixth  chapter  of  John.  Paul  prays  for  the 
Ephesians  "that  Christ  may  dwell  in  their 
hearts  by  faith";*  faith  is  that  which  admits 
and  keeps  Kim  there.  Christ  speaks  of  Him- 
self as  the  world's  light;  it  was  the  condem- 
nation of  men,  not  that  they  had  sinned,  but 
that,  when  light  came,  they  chose  rather 
darkness;^  and  speaking  of  men's  receiving 
this  light  and  walking  in  it,  He  uses  faith 
(belief)  as  the  term,  thus,  "I  am  come  a  light 

>  Rom.  i.  17.  •*  Eph.  iii.  17. 

^  John  iv.  14.  *  John  iii.  19. 

'  John  vi.  47. 

148 


DEFINITIONS 

into  the  world,  that  whosoever  believeth  on 
Me  should  not  abide  in  darkness."  ' 

That  faith  is  not  our  assent  to  a  proclaimed 
"plan  of  salvation,  * '  but  is  the  reception  of  the 
influence  of  a  living,  present,  risen  Lord,  who 
as  a  Spirit  is  ever  with  us,  is  plain  from  the 
fact  that  faith  is  rarely^linked  to  the  death, 
but  almost  always  to  the  resurrection  of 
Christ,  or  to  Christ  Himself  as  an  existing 
personage.^  The  apostles  went  not  forth 
urging  men  to  believe  in  the  efficacy  of 
Christ's  death,  so  much  as  to  believe  in  Christ 
*'who  is  risen. "  ^  They  exhort  all  to  **believe 
on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"*  and  speak  of 
*'faith  toward  our  Lord,"^  ''faith  in  the  Son 
of  God,  "^  using  the  term  in  precisely  the 
same  phase  of  meaning  that  Christ  Himself 
used  it  when  He  so  often  said,  "Believe  Me," 
"He  that  believeth  on  Me,"  etc.^  Thus  the 
Gospel  after  Jesus'  death  was  the  same  Gos- 
pel He  preached — to  wit,  faith  in  a  living, 
present  God  in  Christ.  "If  Christ  be  not 
risen,"  exclaimed  Paul,  "your  faith  is  vain, 
our  preaching  is  vain;  ye  are  yet  in  your 
sins";^  but  according  to  the  Latin  theology, 
our  salvation  hinged  upon   the  dead   Christ; 

^  John  xii.  46.    Belief  and  faith  are  the  same  in  the  original. 
'  Acts  XX.  21;  xvi.  31;  xix.  4;  Rom.  iv.  24;  Heb.  xi.  6,  etc. 
^  Rom,  iv.  24.    Acts  v.  30-31.       "  Gal.  ii.  20. 

*  Acts  xvi.  31.  f  John  vi.  47,  etc. 

*  Acts  XX.  21.  «  I  Cor.  XV.  17. 

149 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

that  it  was  that  made  us  not  "yet  in 
sins." 

The  true  meaning  of  faith  further  appears 
where  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews says  that  preaching  did  some  persons 
no  good,  "not  being  mixed  with  faith, "^  as 
though  faith  alone  gave  the  ideas  of  the  Gos- 
pel regenerative  power.  Sometimes  we  hear 
a  phrase  nowadays  like  "appropriating  faith," 
and  are  told  that  we  must  not  only  believe  in 
Christ,  but  appropriate  Him.  This  is  feeling 
after  the  truth;  although,  once  we  correctly 
apprehend  what  religion  is,  we  see  there  is 
no  other  kind  of  faith,  in  a  Scriptural  sense, 
but  the  appropriating  kind. 

That  faith  is  the  receiving,  as  grace  is  the 
giving  forth,  of  God's  influence  is  perceived 
from  frequent  texts  that  compare  and  con- 
trast the  two.  Paul  beautifully  and  accu- 
rately defines  the  respective  terms  when  he 
writes,  "By  grace  ye  are  saved  through 
faith" ;  ^  God's  influence  saves  us  out  of  a  life 
of  sin,  and  our  faith  is  that  which  admits  this 
power.  Again  he  states,  "We  have  access 
by  faith  into  this  grace  wherein  we  stand";' 
through  faith  we  come  into  the  play  of  God's 
regenerating  force.  He  puts  the  true  Chris- 
tian theory  when  he  says  concisely,  "Being 
justified  freely  by  His  grace,  through  the  re- 

>  Heb.  iv.  2.  '  Eph.  ii.  8.  »  Rom.  v  a. 

150 


DEFINITIONS 

demption  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  . 
through  faith  in  His  blood.  "^  That  is  to 
say,  grace  or  God's  immanent  power  is  what 
saves  us;  the  atonement  is  the  tangible  sym- 
bol and  condition  of  that  power;  and  it  all 
comes  to  us  by  our  admission  of  its  influence 
into  us  by  faith. 

We  pass  next  to  Righteousness,  the  effect 
of  Grace  shining  into  us  through  the  door  of 
Faith.  It  has  been  a  standing  wonder  to 
many  why  Paul  seemed  so  jealous  of  any 
morality  that  was  not  of  faith.  The  vehe- 
mence of  his  argument  against  "the  righteous- 
ness which  is  of  the  law"  has  swung  many 
minds,  insecurely  anchored  in  the  truth,  loose 
from  their  moorings.  Antinomianism,or  that 
doctrine  which  holds  that  it  makes  no  differ- 
ence how  we  act,  just  so  we  have  faith,  has 
stained  the  history  of  the  church  in  all  ages 
with  its  inevitable  filth.  Even  those  who 
would  not  admit  themselves  partakers  of  this 
heresy  have  considered  faith  as  somehow  an 
equivalent  for  good  works,  a  substitute  for 
them  in  a  measure.  Now,  we  perceive  the 
root  of  this  misconception  in  the  same  old 
notion  of  salvation  as  a  plan,  a  plan  for  sav- 
ing men  into  another  country  called  heaven. 
Having  this  false  subsumption  in  our  minds, 
when  we  read   Paul's  writings  about  the  two 

•  Rom.  iii.  24. 

15' 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

kinds  of  righteousness,  of  faith  and  of  law, 
and  about  imputed  righteousness  and  the  like, 
we  are  kept  from  antinomianism  only  by  the 
sound  and  ineradicable  repugnance  to  sin  in 
our  instincts;  we  have  to  close  the  Book  and 
say  simply  that  it  surely  see7ns  to  put  good 
deeds  at  a  discount,  but  it  cannot  be  that  we 
understand  it.  Thus  we  lose  the  whole  force 
of  the  beautiful  and  striking  language  of  Paul 
and  force  ourselves  to  consider  it  a  mystery. 
Let  us  now  apply  even  also  to  this  matter  of 
imputed  righteousness  the  touchstone  of  our 
conception  of  religion  as  God's  influence. 
That  influence  is  called  grace,  its  acceptance 
is  called  faith.  Let  us,  in  this  light,  read 
Paul.  There  is  but  one  who  is  good,  even 
God;  all  good  deeds  must  be  His  kind  of 
deeds;  anything  not  like  Him  is  bad;  there- 
fore righteousness  is  simply  doing  as  God's 
influence  causes  us  to  do.  The  natural  order 
is:  grace  the  sun,  faith  the  tree  assimilating 
the  sun's  light  and  heat,  righteousness  the 
fruit  borne  by  the  tree.  In  one  sense  right- 
eousness is  all-important,  for  the  object  of  a 
tree  is  fruit.  But  there  is  something  more 
important  to  the  tree^  if  we  may  personify  it, 
than  fruit,  and  that  is,  that  it  be  alive.  Life 
is  the  best  of  all.  And  you  may  pin  apples 
on  a  Christmas  tree,  but  it  is  still  dead.  Life 
comes  not  by  fruits;  fruits  come  from  life. 
152 


DEFINITIONS 

The  difficulty  with  the  moralist  is  that  he 
reverses  the  natural  order.  Good  deeds  are 
still  good  even  in  a  bad  man,  but  they  never 
can  make  him  good,  never  can  impart  to  him 
that  eternal  life  which  naturally  is  prolific  in 
good  actions  like  the  apple  tree  bears  apples; 
he  will  with  all  his  good  deeds  be  but  a  Christ- 
mas tree,  dazzling  perhaps  in  his  outward 
acts  pinned  on  by  much  effort,  but  yet  dead. 
God  is  a  Grower,  not  an  Artificer.  His  plan, 
as  is  manifest  in  nature,  is  to  make  things 
come  by  a  natural  development,  not  artifi- 
cially. So  He  desires  the  human  being  to 
grow  righteousness,  not  merely  to  do  it.  Thus 
Christ,  "I  am  the  vine,  ye  are  the  branches. 
Herein  is  My  Father  glorified,  that  ye  bear 
much  fruit.  "^  Thus  we  see  our  Heavenly 
Father,  not  as  an  impatient  schoolmaster 
or  petulant  captain,  caring  most  of  all  that 
His  rules  be  kept,  and  angry  with  us  when 
they  are  not;  but  as  a  Father  indeed  whose 
rules  are  nothing  in  themselves  but  aids  to 
growth,  a  Father  whose  chief  care  is  that  we 
develop  in  us  that  kind  of  life  which  is  true 
joy  and  peace  and  liberty. 

This  is  the  key  to  Paul's  reasoning.  He 
will  insist  on  apple-tree  righteousness  and 
warn  us  against  Christmas-tree  righteousness. 
He  is  talking  to  men  who  seek  life  by  putting 

'  John  XV.  t;.  8. 

153 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

on  the  effects  of  life  to  cover  inward  death. 
When  he  says,  '*A  man  is  justified  by  faith 
without  the  deeds  of  the  law,"^  it  is  intellec- 
tual felony  to  say  he  means  that  a  just  man 
does  not  keep  the  law;  but  his  point  is  that 
deeds  of  law  have  nothing  to  do  with  justify- 
ing him,  making  him  just  and  good.  That  is 
accomplished  by  God's  influence  coming  into 
him  by  faith.  Unfortunately,  doing  good  is 
the  whole  matter  of  religion  in  most  people's 
minds,  simply  because  by  one's  deeds  his  reli- 
gion is  tested;  but  in  Paul's  mind  life  was  the 
whole  matter,  and  doing  good  but  the  mani- 
festation of  that  life;  they  see  the  shadow, 
Paul  saw  the  substance.  Paul  was  just  as 
earnest  as  any  one  that  Christians  should  do 
right.  He  execrates  over  and  over  again  the 
works  of  evil  and  uncleanness,  and  exalts  vir- 
tuous actions,  but  is  careful  to  call  the  latter 
"fruit  of  the  Spirit,"  ^  lest  any  man  be 
tempted  to  merely  put  them  on  and  not  grow 
them.  As  for  absolute  righteousness  the 
Christian  teaching  is  more  severe  and  exact- 
ing than  the  old  Mosaic  law  or  any  other  sys- 
tem of  morality  ever  known.  In  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  Christ  unfolded  the  inner 
meaning  of  right  doing  and  rolled  back  upon 
the  conscience  of  the  race  even  right  thinking 
and    desiring.      He    declared    that   "except 

»  Rom.  iii.  28.  *  Gal.  v.  22. 

154 


DEFINITIONS 

your  righteousness  exceed  that  of  the  scribes 
and  Pharisees  ye  shall  in  no  case  enter  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."  ^  Thus  does  the  "im- 
puted righteousness"  exalt  and  not  let  down 
the  standard  of  morality. 

The  righteousness  of  faith  is  higher  and 
purer  than  the  counterfeit  kind  made  by  rules, 
because  it  is  "of  God" — that  is,  it  is  the  effect 
of  God's  working  in  us.  As  He  is  absolutely 
good,  so  a  man  can  do  good  only  as  he  is 
absorbed  by  the  imitation  and  emulation  of 
love^  into  Him.  "But  now,"  says  the  great 
apostle,  "the  righteousness  of  God  without 
the  law  is  manifested";  a  righteousness  not 
formed  by  rules  and  statutes;  "being  wit- 
nessed by  the  law";  looking  at  those  old 
commandments  we  see  that  the  operation  of 
the  life  of  God  in  us  results  in  true  divine 
deeds;  "even  the  righteousness  of  God"; 
not  ours  except  as  we  do  it  having  come  under 
His  influence;  "which  is  by  faith  of  Jesus 
Christ"  ;  for  it  is  as  the  Christ  that  God  shows 
Himself  to  us,  through  Him  God's  influence 
reaches  us;  "unto  all  and  upon  all  of  them 
that  believe";^  for  this  supernal  influence 
enters  our  life  only  as  we  allow  it,  agree 
with  it,  submit  to  its  effect  upon  us,  or,  in 
other  words,  have  faith. 

Sometimes  Paul  calls  this  imputed  righteous- 

*  Matt.  V.  20.  *  Rom.  iii.  21,  22. 

155 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

ness.  With  the  old  plan-salvation  in  their 
minds  men  supposed  this  meant  that  God  by 
an  odd  sort  of  bookkeeping  credited  a  man 
with  all  good  deeds  if  he  would  assent  to  the 
truth  of  the  scheme  He  had  proposed.  But 
the  fact  is  that  imputed  righteousness  comes 
to  the  same  thing  as  the  righteousness  of  God 
in  us,  when  we  conceive  religion  to  be  God's 
influence,  not  His  artificial  scheme.  "Abra- 
ham believed  God";^  not  merely  had  confi- 
dence that  what  God  said  was  true,  although 
this  is  of  course  a  part  of  faith,  but  he  was  a 
God's-man;  of  all  the  world  in  those  days  he 
was  the  man  who  associated  with  God,  walked 
with  God,  and  consequently  came  under  God's 
influence;  "and  it  was  counted  unto  him  for 
righteousness";  this  yielding  to  God's  lead- 
ings was  esteemed  by  God  a  righteousness 
just  the  same  as  if  Abraham  had  been  obey- 
ing a  written  law;  "therefore  it  is  of  faith 
that  it  might  be  by  grace"  ;  showing  that  true 
righteousness  was  manifested  by  this  man  be- 
fore ever  Moses  gave  the  law,  a  righteousness 
obtained  by  grace,  the  influence  of  God, 
received  by  him  through  faith.  Thus  was 
"Abraham  the  father  of  us  all,  like  unto  Him 
whom  he  believed,  even  God,  who  quickeneth 
the   dead":  for  as  Abraham   came  to  assim- 


*  What  follows  is  an  exposition   of  Rom.  iii.,  taking  these 
verses :  3,  16,  17,  22,  23,  24. 

156 


DEFINITIONS 

ilate  the  character  of  God,  so  may  we  by  the 
same  faith  receive  this  grace.  And  as  Abra- 
ham had  righteousness  imputed  to  him,  so  may 
we  all;  "it  is  for  us  also,  to  whom  it  shall  be 
imputed,  if  we  believe  on  Him  that  raised  up 
Jesus  our  Lord  from  the  dead";  for  we,  by 
opening  our  hearts  in  faith  to  the  influence 
of  this  living,  risen  Lord,  also  have  God's 
righteousness  shown  in  us.  This  is  not  otir 
righteousness,  is  Paul's  thought,  but  as  it  is 
produced  in  us  by  the  Spirit,  it  is  called  ours, 
imputed  to  us,  or  reckoned  as  ours.  Thus  it  is 
said  to  be  imputed,  not  because  it  is  Christ's 
righteousness  credited  to  us  in  the  divine 
accounts,  but  because  it  is  a  righteousness 
springing  not  from  us  properly,  but  from  the 
ififiuence  of  another,  Christ,  in  us.  It  is  prop- 
erly our  righteousness,  and  yet  it  is  "the 
righteousness  of  God"  imputed  to  us,  or  said 
to  be  ours,  because  if  we  had  never  been  influ- 
enced by  Him  we  would  never  have  had  it. 


157 


SUGGESTIONS 

Unless  we  conceive  religion  to  be  the  personal  in- 
fluence  of  God,  the  chief  terms  of  religion  are  but 
algebraic  signs  or  smooth  coins. 

No  gift  of  God  is  of  real  value  unless  God  goes 
with  it. 

Emptied  of  God  a  religious  term  fills  with  magic. 

Grace  is  simply  the  shining  of  God's  face  into  our 
hearts. 

A  good  man  is  a  force  the  heart  intuitively  recog- 
nizes; if  we  do  not  yield  and  become  better  we  resist 
and  become  worse.  In  this  sense  Jesus  made  the 
Pharisees  worse  than  they  were  before.  In  this  sense 
the  Gospel  is  the  damnation  of  some,  as  well  as  the 
salvation  of  others. 

Faith  is  principally  a  function  of  the  will. 

The  intellectual  and  emotional  sides  of  faith  are 
secondary;  the  will  side  is  primary. 

Few  errors  have  done  more  harm  than  the  notion 
that  religion  is  a  matter  of  temperament. 

Justification  means  not  called  just,  but  made  just. 

Grace  is  the  sunshine,  faith  the  open  window. 

The  Gospel  after  Christ's  death  was  the  same  as 
the  Gospel  before  His  death— the  acceptance  of  His 
companionship. 

Religion  differs  from  morality  as  the  apple  tree 
differs  from  the  Christmas  tree;  in  one  case  the  ap- 
ples are  grown,  in  the  other  they  are  stuck  on. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE   LIGHT    FROM   THE   CROSS 

The  Crucifixion  is  not  the  Atonement ;  It  is  but  a 
Part  of  the  Atonement  ;  and  It,  or  any  Scheme  or 
Doctrine  of  It,  is  Impotent  unless  It  be  Vitalized 
and  Completed  by  the  Present  Personal  Influence 
of  God 


"God  was  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto 
Himself." — Paul,  2  Cor.  v.  19. 

"God  is  the  perfect  Poet, 
Who,  in  His  person,  acts  His  own  creations." 
Browning,  Paracelsus. 

"I  wiped  away  the  weeds  and  foam, 
I  fetched  my  sea-born  treasures  home; 
But  the  poor,  unsightly,  noisome  things 
Had  left  their  beauty  on  the  shore. 
With  the  sun  and  the  sand  and  the  wild  uproar." 
Emerson,  Each  and  All, 

"He  folded  his  arms  and  began  to  cry — not  aloud; 
he  sobbed  without  making  any  sound.  He  could  not 
pray;  he  had  prayed  day  and  night  for  so  many 
months;  and  to-night  he  could  not  pray.  If  one 
might  have  gone  up  to  him  and  touched  him  kindly; 
poor,  ugly  little  thing!  Perhaps  his  heart  was  almost 
broken.  .  .  .  There  was  a  secret  he  had  carried 
in  his  heart  for  a  year.  He  had  not  dared  to  look  at 
it;  he  had  not  whispered  it  to  himself;  but  for  a  year 
he  had  carried  it.  'I  hate  God!'  he  said.  He  had 
told  it  now! 

"  'I  love  Jesus  Christ,  but  I  hate  God.' 
"Then  he  got  up  and  buttoned  his  old  coat  about 
him.  He  knew  he  was  certainly  lost  now;  he  did  not 
care.  .  .  .  But,  oh!  the  loneliness,  the  agonized 
pain!  for  that  night,  and  for  nights  and  nights  to 
come."  — Olive  Schreiner,  Story  of  an  African 
Farm,  p.  15. 


CHAPTER    VII 

The  question  that  may  already  have  been 
intruding  itself  upon  the  mind  of  the  reader 
who  has  followed  thus  far  the  development  of 
this  argument  is,  "What  of  the  atonement? 
If  the  operation  of  religion  be  confined  to  the 
personal  influence  of  the  immanent  Deity, 
how  does  the  death  of  Christ  take  away  our 
sins?" 

At  first  thought,  it  would  seem  that  one 
holding  the  view  of  religion  here  set  forth 
would  be  committed  to  what  is  called  "Bush- 
nell's  theory,"  or  the /'moral  influence  the- 
ory," of  the  atonement,  which,  as  commonly 
understood,  is  that  the  sacrifice  of  Christ 
affects  us  only  as  it  is  a  noble  example. 
While  the  most  of  those  who  repudiate  Bush- 
nell's  position,  it  would  seem,  fail  to  do  jus- 
tice to  the  depth  of  meaning  he  gives  to  the 
example  of  Christ,  at  the  same  time  they 
should  at  least  recognize  a  difference  between 
a  moral  influence  theory  and  a  personal  influ- 
ence theory.  The  latter  is  the  theory  of  this 
essay.  It  may  not  be  too  much  to  say  that 
it  is  only  when  we  conceive  religion,  in  all  its 
i6i 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

workings,  to  be  the  personal  influence  of  the 
God-Spirit  upon  the  man-spirit  that  we  can 
get  any  rational  and  satisfactory  view  of  the 
atonement  at  all. 

In  a  proper  conception  of  God's  work 
among  His  sons  to  redeem  them  the  cross  of 
Christ  has  truly  the  central  and  chief  place. 

"All  the  light  of  sacred  history 
Gathers  round  its  head  sublime." 

Jesus  upon  the  tree  of  agony  is  the  greatest 
vision  mankind  has  ever  seen.  This  is  the 
point  from  which  all  Christianity  radiates, 
the  great  fact  about  which  all  eternal  hope 
clusters.  When,  therefore,  we  say  that  the 
resurrection  and  not  the  cross  is  the  dominant 
doctrinal  basis  of  a  proper  theology  we  do 
not  mean  to  belittle  the  latter,  but  merely  to 
say  that  the  mind  of  the  church  through  the 
Middle  Ages  and  till  now  has  held  such  a 
mechanical  and  artificial  view  of  the  atone- 
ment as  negatives  "the  power  of  His  resur- 
rection." The  rising  of  Jesus  from  the  dead, 
His  consequent  immanence  among  men,  His 
present  work  in  purging  away  and  bearing  the 
sins  of  men  by  His  own  self,  these  true  phases 
of  atoning  work  have  been  sacrificed  to  the 
supposed  logical  necessities  of  the  terms  in 
which  the  death  of  Christ  is  spoken  of  in  the 
Scriptures.  Atonement  is  a  larger  term  than 
163 


THE    LIGHT    FROM   THE    CROSS 

the  crucifixion;  it  is  a  continuous  work  being 
carried  on  now  by  the  Christ-God;  the  scene 
upon  Calvary  was  one  of  its  great  parts. 

We  may  not  say  that  the  crucifixion  has 
been  unduly  magnified  by  the  Latin  theology 
(for  it  cannot  possibly  be  exalted  too  much), 
but  it  has  been  magnified  in  the  wrong  way. 
It  has  been  hardened  into  a  legal  device,  a 
statutory  provision,  which  by  its  own  force, 
aside  from  the  present  work  of  the  Spirit,  car- 
ries with  it  divine  forgiveness,  under  certain 
stipulated  conditions.  As  a  mere  logical  syl- 
logism the  death  of  Jesus  has  never  con- 
vinced the  intelligence  of  mankind  that  it 
sufficed  to  take  away  sin.  The  church  the- 
ologians themselves  never  professed  that  their 
theory  was  reasonable.  It  was  a  strange, 
magic,  and  unrjeasonable  act  of  God,  by  which 
He  strangely,  magically,  and  unreasonably 
calls  men  non-sinners  although  they  are  sin- 
ners, and  takes  them  to  a  heaven  for  which 
they  are  in  no  wise  fit. 

Actual  forgiveness  of  sins  because  of  the 
sacrifice  of  Christ,  apart  from  His  present 
resurrection  power,  maintained  its  hold  on 
the  mediaeval  mind  for  several  reasons.  First, 
because  all  the  terms  which  refer  to  it  in  the 
Bible  are  drawn  from  Jewish  ritualism,  and 
thus  are  most  easily  fitted  to  a  system  of 
dogma  whose  main  idea  was  to  exalt  and 
163 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

uphold  the  church.  In  its  bald  Judaistic 
phraseology,  without  attempting  to  bring  forth 
the  depths  of  its  spiritual  significance  as  is 
done  by  Paul,  it  best  suited  a  Christian  hier- 
archy. Again,  because  of  the  very  incon- 
clusiveness  of  the  argument,  that  because 
the  Son  of  God  died  once,  therefore  all  be- 
lievers on  Him  should  escape  punishment, 
because  of  the  element  of  magic  in  this,  it 
appealed  to  the  superstitious  debasement 
of  reason  and  emphasis  of  credulity  which 
characterized  the  Middle  Ages.  Again,  as 
Christ's  death  was  a  bloody  and  fearful  spec- 
tacle it  attracted  an  age  that  was  fierce, 
gloomy,  and  cruel,  an  age  whose  chief  theo- 
logic  excellence  was  the  stress  it  laid  upon 
the  torture  and  woe  consequent  upon  sin.  It 
was  a  tragic  age  and  a  magic  age,  and  took  to 
a  religion  whose  keynote  was  a  magical 
tragedy. 

Besides  this,  it  may  be  that  it  was  a  part 
of  the  divine  plan  that  under  this  gloomy  view 
of  the  process  of  divine  forgiveness  mankind 
should  lie  while  their  spiritual  powers  were 
as  yet  feeble  and  while  the  public  mind  was 
still  gross  and  materialistic.  It  was  a  part  of 
the  education  of  the  race,  which  has  always 
proceeded  from  symbol  to  reality,  from  form 
to  truth,  from  husk  to  contents.  Expecting 
a  princely  Messiah,  sitting  upon  a  golden 
164 


THE   LIGHT   FROM   THE   CROSS 

throne,  or  leading  the  chosen  people  to  a  war 
of  conquest  over  the  Gentiles,  the  Jews  kept 
alive  the  hope  of  His  coming;  yet  when  He 
came  His  real  reign  and  methods  seemed  so 
weak  and  intangible  that  His  people  knew 
Him  not.  Even  so,  holding  to  the  atone- 
ment in  Christ  as  simply  a  legal  setting  aside 
of  the  verdict  against  men  by  a  divine  substi- 
tute paying  the  full  blood  price,  the  Latin 
church  preserved  the  idea  of  atonement  until 
men  should  become  able  to  see  through  this 
figure  and  symbol  the  sublime  reality,  how 
the  Christ-Spirit  now  does  actually  purge  sins. 
And  as  the  Jews  in  Jesus'  day  thought  that 
the  mild  Galilean  blasphemed  when  He  pre- 
tended to  be  that  glorious  Messiah  of  whom 
the  prophets  had  spoken,  so  now  any  one  who 
attempts  to  abate  one  jot  or  tittle  from  the 
legalistic,  artificial  view  of  the  atonement, 
and  to  show  that  the  reality  is  a  present  and 
spiritual  fact,  instead  of  a  past  and  ritualistic 
fact,  must  be  prepared  to  incur  the  wrath  of 
some  of  those  who  are  zealous  for  the  supposed 
*'faith  of  our  fathers." 

The  two  views  of  the  atonement  commonly, 
held  by  the  church,  and  taught  to-day,  are 
what  are  called  the  substitutional  and  the 
governmental  theories.  It  is  not  the  purpose 
of  this  writing  to  examine  these  views  in 
detail,  nor  to  undertake  to  refute  the  argu- 
165 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

ments  by  which  they  are  commonly  supported. 
Indeed,  they  are  both  right  as  Judaistic  or 
controversial  views,  but  as  commonly  under- 
stood they  are  not  Christian.  We  do  not 
deny  their  reasonings,  nor  deny  that  those 
reasonings  bring  properly  their  conclusions; 
but  we  simply  set  aside  their  whole  point  of 
view,  and  insist  that  they  have  failed  to  rise 
above  the  level  of  Judaistic  thought.  As  a 
substitute  Christ  does  bear  our  sins  upon  His 
own  body;  as  a  dying  Son  He  does  vindicate 
the  unbending  morality  of  God,  but  not  in 
the  way  usually  held.  We  are  not  saved  as 
the  conclusion  of  a  syllogism  of  which  Christ's 
death  and  man's  sin  are  the  premises.  We 
are  not  saved  as  a  necessary  entry  on  the 
divine  court  records  made  there,  because  we, 
by  an  act  called  belief,  are  credited  with  the 
full  merits  of  Jesus'  blood.  These  bare  and 
lifeless  statements  leave  out  the  very  force 
that  makes  the  atonement  atone — namely, 
**the  power  of  His  resurrection."  A  present, 
spiritual  Saviour  alone  can  give  these  propo- 
sitions life,  a  Saviour  who  bears  with  Him  in 
His  present  work  all  the  equipment  of  His 
great  sacrifice. 

When  we  come  to  put  the  knife  of  common 

sense   and   sane    biblical    interpretation    into 

these   theories,    to   divide   the   true   from  the 

false,    we   find   precisely   the   same  kind  of  a 

166 


THE   LIGHT   FROM    THE    CROSS 

mistake  here  that  we  found  in  the  common 
religious  notions  to  which  allusion  has  been 
made  in  former  chapters.  We  discover  a  per- 
sistent taking  of  the  lower  instead  of  the 
upper  thought,  a  perception  of  the  material 
and  a  missing  of  the  spiritual  meaning.  In 
fact,  it  is  the  old  enemy  of  the  higher  life, 
materialism,  that  has  wrought  as  evil  effects 
upon  theology  as  upon  philosophy.  Material- 
ism, a  lack  of  spiritual  perception,  slew 
Christ;  it  has  never  failed  to  destroy  the  qual- 
ity of  the  painter's  and  of  the  sculptor's 
work;  it  corrupts  literature;  it  debases  poli- 
tics; it  prostitutes  science  to  be  the  cover  and 
concealment  instead  of  the  revelation  of  God; 
and  we  need  not  wonder  that  it  has  trans- 
formed the  warm  and  breathing  theology  of 
Paul  and  the  early  Greek  fathers  into  the 
symmetrical  and  dead  statues  of  Augustine  and 
Calvin.  It  is  not  strange  that  an  automatic 
and  spiritless  atonement  scheme  is  held  by 
those  who  suppose  salvation  to  be  merely  a  sav- 
ing of  men  from  punishment,  instead  of  a  trans- 
formation of  their  characters  from  sinfulness 
to  holiness;  who  conceive  the  object  of  the 
Saviour  to  be  to  get  men  into  a  heaven-place, 
instead  of  getting  them  into  a  heaven-condi- 
tion ;  who  imagine  religion  to  be  a  plan  instead 
of  a  power  of  growth.  The  crude  types  of 
Jewish  ritualism  were  built  into  a  logical  sys- 
167 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

tem  by  the  Latin  mind ;  Oriental  imagery  be- 
came Latin  dogma;  the  typical  "shadows  of 
things  to  come,"  were  hardened  into  doc- 
trinal stones. 

Let  us  now  proceed  to  examine  how  the 
hypothesis,  that  religion  is  the  personal  influ- 
ence of  God,  gives  clearness  and  beauty, 
coherency  and  reasonableness,  to  the  atone- 
ment in  Christ.  The  atoning  death  of  Jesus 
is  alluded  to  by  the  sacred  writers  in  peculiar 
terms  that  do  not  at  all,  at  first  glance,  seem 
to  conform  to  the  notion  that  its  effect  lies 
entirely  within  the  channel  of  personal  influ- 
ence. These  terms  are  drawn  from  the  Jew- 
ish sacrificial  rites,  and  have  about  them  the 
very  air  of  a  contrivance.  Are  we  to  brush 
them  aside  as  mere  symbols,  and  are  we  to 
say,  as  many  in  revolting  against  the  churchly 
teaching  have  said,  that  they  are  but  figures 
of  speech,  and  that  our  Saviour's  death  was 
merely  a  sublime  example  for  us  to  imitate  in 
its  spirit?  By  no  means.  While  these  terms 
are  figures,  yet  they  are  divine  figures, 
ordained  and  set  forth  of  God  in  order  to  pre- 
pare those  forms  of  thought  in  which  the 
death  of  Jesus  was  to  be  rightly  considered. 

That  death  was  the  fulfillment  of  all  types. 
First  there  was  the  Lamb  type;  He  was  "the 
Lamb   of   God,"^    "the   propitiation   for  our 

•  John  i.  29. 

168 


THE   LIGHT   FROM   THE    CROSS 

sins,"^  "delivered  for  our  offenses,*"  etc. 
Again,  He  fulfilled  the  Priest  type;  all  the 
order  of  priestly  service  was  to  prepare  men's 
minds  for  the  character  of  His  atoning  work; 
after  Him  should  be  no  more  priests,  even  as 
no  more  slain  lambs  upon  the  altar;  He  is 
the  "one  mediator  between  God  and  man,"  ' 
"a  priest  forever, "*  etc.  Again,  He  is  said 
to  take  away  our  sins;  "the  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin,"  ^  etc.  He 
also  is  said  to  bear  our  sins,  as  the  slain  altar 
victim  typically  bore  away  the  Jews'  sins; 
"bore  our  sins  in  His  own  body  on  the  tree,"  * 
etc.  He  is  further  said  to  have  bought  us, 
redeemed  us,  or  paid  a  price  for  us,  by  His 
death ;  for  Peter  says  we  are  not  bought  by 
silver  and  gold,  but  by  the  precious  blood  of 
Christ,  as  of  a  Lamb  without  blemish.''  Into 
one  or  another  of  these  five  forms  all  that  is 
anywhere  said  in  the  New  Testament  con- 
cerning Christ's  atoning  work  will  fall. 

Before  taking  up  each  of  these  figures,  let 
us  be  reminded  of  the  relation  which  the  fulfill- 
ment of  a  type  must  bear  to  the  type  itself. 
We  should  bear  in  mind  that  the  reality  will 
be  quite  as  unlike  as  it  will  be  like  the  type. 
If  it  resembles  the  type  completely,  it  will  not 

'  I  John  ii.  2.  •  I  John  i.  7. 

'  Rom.  iv.  2$.  "  I  Pet.  ii.  24. 

»  I  Tim.  ii.  5.  '  i  Pet.  i.  19. 

*  Heb.  vii.  3. 

169 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

be  a  fulfillment  at  all,  but  merely  another, 
although  a  higher  type.  The  fact,  indeed, 
should  resemble  the  symbol  in  form,  but  will 
differ  in  contents. 

Now,  we  all  know  how  perfectly  Christ's 
death  and  ministry  conformed  to  the  method 
and  plan  of  Jewish  sacrifices.  Wherein  did  it 
differ?  In  contents — as  a  man  from  a  statue, 
as  a  flower  from  a  picture,  as  an  idea  from  a 
word.  The  arrangement  or  covenant  by 
which  God  is  to  forgive  men  by  Jesus  Christ  is 
thus  plainly  stated  by  the  apostles  to  be  a  new 
covenant,  one  entirely  different  from  the 
Mosaic  covenant.  For  the  author  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  says  that  the  sacrifices 
and  altar  ceremonies  of  the  old  regime  were 
*'the  example  and  shadow  of  heavenly  things; 
but  now,  hath  Christ  become  the  mediator  of 
a  better  covenant."^  How  is  the  new  better 
than  the  old?  It  is  in  that  the  Jews  under 
the  old  sacrifices  knew  not  why  they  were  for- 
given, except  that  it  was  the  promise  of  God. 
The  sole  merits  in  Jewish  sacrifice  were  obe- 
dience and  faith.  It  was  a  locked  mystery. 
But  the  new  covenant  is  an  unlocked  mys- 
tery. Paul  says  he  is  commissioned  to  declare 
this  secret  openly  to  the  Gentiles.  In  fact,  the 
word  "mystery,"  in  the  usage  of  the  apostle's 
time,   meant  just  the  opposite  from  what  it 

'  Heb.  viii.  6. 

170 


THE   LIGHT   FROM   THE   CROSS 

commonly  means  now;  for  to  us  it  means 
something  hidden,  but  in  apostolic  usage  it 
signified  something  hitherto  concealed  but  now 
disclosed  and  made  plain.  Thus  Paul  writes 
that  he  is  a  minister  of  God  to  declare  *'the 
mystery  which  hath  been  hid  from  ages,  but 
now  is  made  manifest  to  His  saints.  *  *  ^ 

Taking  a  general  view  of  the  whole  work 
of  Christ's  atonement,  the  main  thought  in  it 
all  is  that  of  sacrifice.  This  is  also  the  dom- 
inant idea  in  the  Mosaic  ceremonies.  But  the 
latter  had  to  do  with  only  the  sacrifices  of 
* 'bulls  and  goats,  by  which  it  is  not  possible 
to  take  away  sins"  ^ — that  is  to  say,  sacrifice, 
in  itself,  is  of  no  avail.  ("Go  ye  and  learn 
what  this  meaneth, "  said  Christ;  "I  will  have 
mercy  and  not  sacrifice."^)  Thus  any  view 
of  the  atonement  which  makes  God  to  for- 
give  men  because   the  sacrifice  of  Christ  in 

'  Col.  i.  26.  The  word  mystery  is  carried  bodily  over  from  the 
Greek  musterion,  which  in  classical  usage  means  those  religious 
rites  and  knowledge,  hidden  to  the  outer  world,  but  revealed  to 
the  initiated.  Thus  the  Christian  is  as  one  ioining  a  secret  soci- 
ety: to  the  world  all  is  sign  and  symbol,  but  to  him  ail  is,  or 
ought  to  be,  plain.  Thus  Paul:  "  I  would  7iot  that  ye  be  ignorant 
of  this  mystery,"  Rom.  xi.  2$;  "Behold,  I  shew  you  a  mystery," 
I  Cor.  XV.  51;  "(God)  \\2i\\n^  made  known  \xnXo  me  the  mystery," 
Eph.  i.  9 ;  "By  revelation  l4e  made  known  unto  me  the  mystery," 
Eph.  iii.  3;  "  When  ye  read,  ye  may  understand  my  knowledge  of 
the  mystery,"  Eph.  iii.  4;  "God  ....  would  make  known  —  the 
riches— of  this  mystery  among  the  Gentiles,  which  is,  Christ  in 
(or  among)  you."  Col.  i.  27;  "To  the  full  assurance  of  under- 
standing, to  the  acknowledgment  (epignosis,  accurate  knowl- 
edge) ofthe  mystery  of  God,  Col.  ii.  2;  "  Great  is  the  mystery  of 
godliness,"  m  i  Tim.  iii  16  means,  not  that  it  is  very  deep  and 
abstruse,  but  th^t  it  is  glorious,  and  majestic,  as  the  rest  of  the 
verse  shows.  Nowhere  is  mystery  used  to  mean  something  not 
to  be  understood  at  all. 

•  Heb.  X.  4-  '  Matt.  ix.  13. 

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THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

itself  is  sufficient  as  supplying  a  substitute  for 
them,  is  merely  a  mended  Judaistic  scheme, 
with  a  better  sacrifice  but  no  better  covenant. 
To  hold  that  men  are  forgiven  simply  because 
Christ  died,  is  to  make  the  fulfillment  exactly 
like  the  type,  just  as  narrow  and  as  imperfect. 
But  the  death  of  Jesus  differed  in  meaning  from 
the  death  of  lambs,  bulls,  and  goats  in  the 
old  order  quite  as  much  as  it  resembled  them  in 
form.  That  difference  was  that  His  death 
was  a  self-sacrifice. 

Sacrifice  means  nothing  at  all  in  itself,  but 
only  as  a  type;  but  self-sacrifice  does  mean 
something  in  itself.  The  slaying  of  innocent 
lambs  was  the  symbol  of  the  self-chosen  death 
of  the  sinless,  incarnate  God.  This  is  the 
precise  argument  of  the  author  of  the  Epistle 
of  the  Hebrews: 

"For  it  is  not  possible  that  the  blood  of 
the  bulls  and  goats  should  take  away  sins. 

"Wherefore  when  He  cometh  into  this 
world.  He  saith.  Sacrifice  and  offering  Thou 
wouldst  not,  but  a  body  Thou  hast  prepared 
Me: 

"In  burnt  offerings  and  sacrifices  for  sins 
Thou  hast  had  no  pleasure. 

"Then  said  I,  Lo,  I  come  to  do  Thy  will,  O 
God."^ 

Thus  the  main  idea  that  will,   almost  by 

»  Heb.  X.  4-7. 

172 


THE   LIGHT    FROM    THE    CROSS 

itself  alone,  correct  and  make  reasonable  our 
notion  of  the  atonement  is  this  idea  of  self- 
sacrifice,  found  in  Paul:  "God  was  in  Christ 
reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself."  ^  As  if 
by  one  stroke  all  the  irreconcilable  absurdities 
in  the  common  view  of  the  attitude  of  "the 
different  actors"  in  the  atonement  disappear, 
when  we  remember  that  Christ's  suffering  was 
God's  suffering.  God  and  Christ  are  one, 
not  two.  It  was  "the  fullness  of  the  Godhead 
bodily"  ^  that  endured  the  agony  of  the  cruci- 
fixion. This  changes  the  scene  at  once  from 
that  of  a  merciless  Justice  expending  its 
wrath  upon  an  innocent  victim,  to  one  in 
which  a  dear  and  loving  Father  Himself  comes 
to  die  for  us.  The  aspect  alters  immediately 
from  a  Judge,  driven  by  the  limitations  of 
His  own  statutes  to  extricate  Himself  from  a 
dilemma  by  slaying  His  own  Son,  to  a  Creator 
who  in  the  fullness  of  time  and  at  the  proper 
place  in  the  development  of  mankind  reveals 
Himself  as  redeeming  men  by  participating 
in  their  struggles  and  sufferings. 

The  very  innocence  of  the  Christ-God  gives 
His  sufferings  a  redemptive  force.  There  is 
nothing  that  redeems  when  the  wicked  suffer 
the  effects  of  their  deeds.  It  is  only  when 
the  innocent  are  involved  in  the  misery  and 
destruction    which    sin    brings,    that   sinners 

*  2  Cor.  V.  19.  «  Col.  ii.  9. 

173 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

begin  to  see  the  *' sinfulness  of  sin."  Thus 
Jesus  vindicates  the  morality  of  God;  thus 
He  maintains  the  righteousness  of  the  divine 
government;  not  because  God  could  not  for- 
give until  He  had  His  "pound  of  flesh,"  not 
because  some  one  must  bear  on  himself  all  the 
tortures  of  hell  which  the  divine  statutes  de- 
clare to  be  the  prescribed  penalty  of  sin,  not 
because  literally 

"At  one  deep  draught  of  love 
He  drank  damnation  dry," 

but  because  only  by  the  self-sacrifice  of  the 
innocent  and  upright  can  there  be  brought 
home  to  the  hearts  of  offenders  the  wretched 
and  awful  results  of  sin  and  rebellion.  In- 
stead, therefore,  of  holding  that  the  death  of 
Jesus  "establishes  the  law" — that  is,  makes 
manifest  the  inflexible  righteousness  of  the 
law — by  supplying  a  victim  who  received  all 
the  penalty  upon  Himself,  it  is  better  to  say 
that  He  "establishes  the  law"  by  revealing 
the  evil  results  of  sin  upon  One  who  was  pure, 
harmless,  and  undefiled.  As  the  law  of 
Moses  revealed  sin  by  holding  up  the  perfect 
code  of  morality  before  men,  so  the  life  and 
death  of  Jesus  much  more  revealed  sin  by 
disclosing  to  mankind  what  sin  will  do  to  a 
holy  Being.  The  Latin  theology  is  ever  con- 
cerned about  penalties  and  punishment;  the 
174 


THE   LIGHT   FROM   THE    CROSS 

Pauline  theology  speaks  constantly  of  sinful- 
ness and  the  evil  life. 

It  may  be  objected  that  this  view  obscures 
the  personality  of  the  Son  as  distinct  from 
that  of  the  Father;  but  the  answer  to  this  is, 
that  whatever  may  have  been  the  mysterious 
difference  between  those  two  persons,  we  are 
certainly  warranted  by  Jesus*  own  words  in 
thoroughly  identifying  them  in  the  great  work 
of  redemption.  In  an  effort  to  construct  a 
logically  operative  atonement  theory  the  two 
persons  of  the  Godhead  have  been  separated. 
The  consequence  has  been  a  satisfaction  to 
the  reasoning  processes  of  the  mind,  but  a 
dissatisfaction  to  the  heart.  The  moment  we 
make  two  actors  in  the  great  atonement  scene, 
in  order  to  make  it  fit  the  precise  terminology 
of  Jewish  ritualism,  that  moment  we  have 
sacrificed  the  reality  to  the  type.  The  evasive 
tincture  of  Arianism  is  that  which  gives  an 
unpleasant  and  unlovely  hue  to  this  great  act. 
For  God  to  visit  our  punishment  upon  another 
does  not  reveal  Him  as  One  * 'altogether 
lovely";  but  for  God  incarnate  in  the  Eternal 
Son  to  take  our  sin  upon  Himself — this  has 
the  pathetic  touch  of  love.  To  suppose  God 
to  be  compelled  by  a  something  called  Justice 
to  submit  His  Son  to  the  death  of  the  cross, 
does  not  give  a  very  high  idea  of  justice,  but 
gives  to  justice  a  cruel  and  narrow  meaning, 
175 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

and  exalts  it,  as  an  attribute  of  God,  above 
and  beyond  God  Himself.  But  for  God  to 
be  so  full  of  the  essential  element  of  justice 
that  He  is  not  willing  for  His  children  to 
struggle  on  hopelessly  in  the  losing  battle 
against  sin,  but  is  moved  to  "take  upon  Him- 
self the  form  of  a  servant"  and  come  down 
to  live,  suffer,  and  die  under  the  same  load  of 
sin's  wretched  consequences  which  weighs  on 
men,  this  makes  Christ's  death  to  exemplify 
and  exalt,  not  a  stern  Justice  superior  to  God 
Himself,  but  a  Just  God  in  whom  Justice, 
Love,  and  Mercy  are  as  if  different  gleams 
from  various  facets  of  the  same  jewel. 

The  preparatory  and  symbolic  truth,  there- 
fore, of  the  Mosaic  ritualism  was  that  salva- 
tion was  to  be  by  sacrifice;  the  "new  and 
better  covenant"  of  the  real  atonement  was 
that  salvation  is  by  self-sacrifice.  Thus  is  the 
reality  like,  yet  unlike,  the  symbol.  And, 
indeed,  self-sacrifice  is  the  law  of  any  kind  of 
salvation  among  sentient  spirits.  The  ene- 
mies of  Jesus  told  the  truth  when  they  taunted 
Him  as  He  hung  upon  the  cross,  saying,  "He 
saved  others;  Himself  He  cannot  save."  We 
see  that  of  course  He  could  not.  It  becomes 
apparent  that  as  no  man  can  save  another,  in 
any  small  degree,  and  save  himself,  too,  so 
even  the  Almighty  could  not  (the  words  are 
used  reverentially  and  with  a  view  only  to 
176 


THE    LIGHT    FROM    THE    CROSS 

their  grammatical  significance)  save  men  and 
save  Himself  also.  The  deplorable  state  of 
mankind  called  for  so  priceless  a  ransom  that 
humanity  could  not  furnish  it;  sacrifice,  the 
greatest  men  could  offer,  was  too  small  to 
avail;  nothing  but  a  divine  self-sacrifice  could 
meet  the  requirements. 

This  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  is  to  come  also 
upon  us;  we  are  also  to  give  ourselves  for  a 
lost  world.  This  thought  is  frequently  found 
in  the  New  Testament.  If  the  atonement  be 
merely  a  device,  such  a  thought  would  be 
presumption,  if  not  blasphemy.  But  when 
we  understand  the  death  upon  the  cross  to  be 
a  sublime  revelation  of  God,  and  not  merely 
a  divine  piece  of  machinery,  we  see  how  we 
can  give  ourselves  for  those  about  us,  even  as 
He,  the  All-Father,  gave  Himself  for  "the  sins 
of  the  whole  world."  How  can  the  old  me- 
chanical idea  of  Christ's  atoning  death  fit 
such  a  passage  as  this?  "As  Thou  hast  sent 
Me  into  the  world,"  said  Jesus,  "even  so 
have  I  also  sent  them  into  the  world. "  ^  Thus 
He  spoke  in  His  last  great  prayer.  Again, 
after  His  resurrection.  He  met  with  His 
disciples  and  once  more  declared,  "As  the 
Father  hath  sent  Me,  even  so  send  I  you. "^ 
Paul  also  speaks  of  "the  fellowship  of  His 

>  John  xvii.  i8.  ^  John  xx.  ai. 


[77 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

sufferings"  ;  *  and  in  another  place  writes  that 
he  endures  all  afflictions  *'for  the  elect's 
sake."'  He  even  uses  this  remarkable 
language:  "I  rejoice  in  my  sufferings  for  you, 
and  fill  up  that  which  is  behind  of  the  afflic- 
tions of  Christ  in  my  flesh  for  His  body's 
sake,  which  is  the  church. "  ^  He  goes  in  fact 
to  the  extreme  length  of  saying  that  he  could 
wish  himself  accursed  from  Christ  for  his  fel- 
low-countrymen's sake.*  The  atonement  has, 
therefore,  for  its  great  underlying  law  of 
power,  that  through  it  God's  influence,  as  a 
spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  enters  the  world.  This 
is  the  dynamics  of  Christ's  death. 

This,  however,  is  not  all  of  this  atonement. 
It  is  not  merely  a  display  of  divine  love  that 
is  to  influence  us  by  its  example  to  go  and  do 
likewise.  It  is  not  a  mere  theatric  exhibition. 
It  also  contains  within  itself  such  a  revelation 
of  God  as  actually  purges  our  sins  when  His 
Spirit  comes  in  upon  us.  If  it  had  been  only 
an  exhibition,  it  would  not  have  needed  the 
system  of  Judaism  to  prepare  for  it.  But  that 
system,  by  its  types,  supplies  us  with  the 
proper  full  conception  of  the  bearings  of  this 
great  work. 

Let  us  now  take  up  these  various  Mosaic 
symbols,   and   see   how   they,  when   taken   in 

*  Phil.  iii.  10.    See  also  2  Cor.  iv.  10. 

*  2  Tim.  ii.  10.  »  Col.  i.  24.  *  Rom.  ix.  3. 

178 


THE   LIGHT   FROM    THE    CROSS 

connection  with  the  fundamental  idea  that 
religion  is  the  personal  influence  of  God, 
make  plain  the  atonement.  And  first,  the 
Lamb  type.  The  slaying  of  a  lamb  was  a 
prominent  feature  of  Jewish  sacrifices,  and 
Christ  is  called  "the  Lamb  of  God."  It  was 
the  blood  of  this  lamb  that  was  the  essential 
thing.  "Without  shedding  of  blood  is  no 
remission."*  Blood  was  sacred.  No  man 
must  eat  it;  even  a  stranger  eating  it  must  be 
put  to  death;  it  must  be  poured  out  unto  the 
Lord.^  Why  was  this?  The  Jew  never  knew. 
All  that  he  could  understand  was  that  it  was 
God's  ordinance.  God  might  have  forgiven 
His  people  (perhaps  he  thought)  some  other 
way;  but  for  some  unknown  reason  He  pre- 
scribed this  way,  and  without  sacrificing  life 
none  need  expect  pardon.  Now,  the  death  of 
Jesus,  the  Lamb  of  God,  elevated  the  old 
sacrificial  language  into  a  wonderful  luminous 
newness  of  meaning.  He  came  to  fulfill,  to 
fill  to  the  full,  the  law  and  the  prophets.  Now 
we  see  what  the  Jews  never  saw.  The  dying 
Lamb  saves  because  without  giving  life  there 
is  no  saving  life.  When  Jesus  by  His  death 
showed  the  reality,  of  which  the  altar  was  the 
symbol.  He  showed  it  as  resembling  and  yet 
differing  from  the  type.  It  resembled  it  be- 
cause His  sacrifice  was  a  blood-shedding,   a 

*  Heb.  IX.  22.  *  Deut.  xii.  23.    Lev.  xvii.  10  14. 

179 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

life-giving;  it  differed  from  the  type  in  that 
His  sacrifice  was  a  self-sacrifice.  The  forms 
of  both  the  type  and  the  reality  were  the  same ; 
the  spiritual  contents  were  not  the  same. 

Thus  we  perceive  how  it  is  that  the  blood 
makes  our  peace  with  God.  Christ  atones, 
makes  God  and  man  "at  one,"  not  because 
He  pays  the  fixed  price  for  sin,  but  because  in 
Him  God  enters  sympathetically  into  the 
world's  struggle.  We  must  not  put  the  hard, 
commercial  aspect  upon  this  matter.  We 
cannot  confine  God's  majestic  workings  down 
to  our  customs  of  bargain  and  sale,  nor  to  the 
makeshift  something  we  call  justice  in  our 
courts.  Who  shall  say  that  sins  are  charged 
upon  the  books  and  Christ's  blood  credited; 
or  that,  unless  the  statutory  provision  of  death 
for  sin  be  carried  out,  God  refuses  to  be 
pacified?  What  pitiful  logic-machinery  this, 
from  which  to  grind  out  salvation!  The  Jew 
saw  the  spilt  blood  on  the  altar,  but  he  knew 
not  why  it  "propitiated"  God;  he  only  knew 
it  was  God's  command.  But  Christ  made 
known  this  mystery  that  had  been  hidden 
in  all  altars  through  the  ages,  by  showing 
that  the  shed  blood  was  the  sacrificed  life  of 
the  noble,  the  high,  the  potent,  and  the  pure 
to  save  the  mean,  low,  weak,  and  degraded ; 
even,  indeed,  God  Himself  suffers  in  Christ 
for  the  sake  of  the  men  who  pierce  Him. 
i8o 


THE   LIGHT   FROM   THE    CROSS 

It  is  the  law  of  life  that  sinners  come  to 
sorrow  and  the  upright  to  peace.  Now  this 
naturally  estranges  the  two  classes.  If  they 
are  to  be  '*at  oned,"  brought  into  unity  again, 
it  can  only  be  either  in  the  devil's  way  of 
giving  peace  to  sinners  that  they  may  enjoy  it 
with  the  righteous,  or  in  God's  way  of  the 
righteous  stooping  down  to  take  upon  them- 
selves the  sorrows  of  sin,  thus  in  helpfulness 
lifting  the  sinners  to  a  better  life.  God  repre- 
sents all  that  is  holy  and  pure;  mankind's 
story  has  been  black;  the  natural  tendency 
would  therefore  be  for  God  and  mankind 
steadily  to  drift  apart;  the  atonement  there- 
fore is  made  when  Christ,  the  God  incarnate, 
stoops  to  take  on  His  own  shoulders  our 
stripes,  to  pour  out  His  own  blood  under  sin- 
ful persecutors. 

One  great  trouble  with  the  church  to-day 
is  that  it  fails  to  seize  this  spirit  of  the  atone- 
ment. Regarding  it  in  the  old,  hard,  com- 
mercial way  as  a  stipulated  price  paid  for 
sin,  the  church-member  considers,  that  hav- 
ing accepted  this  agreement,  and  having  by 
belief  and  repentance  appropriated  it,  now 
therefore  he  is  entitled  to  its  benefits,  a  peace- 
ful and  happy  life. 

This  separates  him  from  sinners.  They 
must  suffer  on;  he  is  to  live  in  peace.  Thus 
there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed  between  them. 
i8i 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

Thus,  in  a  way  so  subtle  and  profound  that 
they  knew  it  not,  the  hard,  commercial  view 
of  Christ's  atonement  was  the  underlying 
cause  of  that  spirit  of  segregation  which  in 
Romanism  developed  into  monasticism  and  in 
Protestantism  was  manifested  as  Puritanism, 
This  view  of  the  atonement  tended  to  estrange 
the  church  from  the  world;  it  did  not  "at 
one"  in  social  life  at  all.  It  did  not,  and  does 
not,  break  down  the  "middle  wall  of  partition" 
between  the  elect  and  the  unregenerated,  but 
it  strengthened  that  wall.  But  the  atone- 
ment conceived  of  as  a  divine  self-giving  is 
permeating  more  and  more  in  these  days  the 
mind  of  the  church,  and  in  Protestant  mis- 
sions to  heathen  lands,  in  social  reforms,  in 
so-called  "applied  Christianity,"  and  in  many 
kindred  ways  it  is  reconciling  the  world  and 
the  church. 

In  fine,  we  may  say  that  the  secret  of  "the 
blood"  is  that  it  signifies  the  bringing  together 
the  holy  and  the  sinful  by  means  of  the  former 
voluntarily  participating  in  the  sufferings  of 
the  latter.  Thus  the  empty,  ceremonial 
formula  of  sacrifice  is  crowded  full  of  the 
glorious  contents  of  self-sacrifice.  For  us  to 
hold  that  Jesus'  death  in  some  way,  by  some 
strange  law  of  the  divine  court-room,  removes 
from  us  the  necessity  of  suffering  penalty  of 
our  sin,  is  to  go  back  to  Judaism;  that  is  pre- 
182 


THE   LIGHT   FROM   THE    CROSS 

cisely  all  they  could  see  in  the  death  of  the 
sacrificial  lamb.  This  is  to  *'fall  from 
grace,"  *  to  retreat  from  the  light  of  the  Gos- 
pel to  ceremonial  darkness.  But  to  appre- 
hend that,  above  and  beyond  all  question  of 
penalty,  Jesus'  death  reveals  to  us  a  God 
participating  in  our  struggle  with  and  suffer- 
ing by  sin;  this  gives  us  the  inward  power  to 
overcome  sin,  to  purge  our  lives  of  its  hateful 
virus,  and  to  rise  by  the  assistance  of  the 
ever-present  Atoner  and  Helper  into  new- 
ness of  life.  Such  is  the  meaning  of  the 
Blood. 

But  God  in  Christ  fulfilled  the  Priest  type 
as  well  as  the  Lamb  or  Blood  type.  He  was 
at  once  the  revelation  of  the  divine  meaning 
of  both  priesthood  and  sacrifice.  He  is  not 
our  High  Priest  for  the  sole  reason  that  He 
"ever  liveth  to  make  intercession"  for  us. 
Never  should  we  allow  the  force  of  an  illus- 
tration to  carry  us  away  from  a  fact.  The 
fact  is  that  He  is  very  God,  the  embodied 
representative  to  us  of  God;  that  He  is  called 
a  ^'priest  forever"  is  therefore  but  a  shade  of 
meaning  of   His  godly  character,  which   He 

'  Gal.  V.  4:  "  Christ  is  become  of  no  effect  unto  you,  whoso- 
ever are  justified  by  the  law;  ye  are  fallen  from  grace.''  Thus  we 
see  that  by  "  falling  from  grace,"  in  Scriptural  usage,  is  not 
meant  "backsliding"  from  grace  into  the  world,  but  "backslid- 
ing" from  a  true  and  spiritual  conception  of  Christs  work  to  a 
Jewish  and  legal  conception  of  it;  which  is  exactly  what  is  done 
by  the  Latiu  theology. 

183 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

intends  to  reveal  to  us/  As  Christ  surprised 
the  waiting  world  by  disclosing  that  the  shed 
blood  which  availed  was  His  own  blood,  the 
lamb  of  God's  choosing  was  God  Himself 
incarnate,  so  He  unfolds  to  us  that  God  is 
His  own  priest.  In  other  words,  the  office  of 
the  priesthood  was  made,  just  as  the  custom 
of  shedding  blood  was  instituted,  to  prepare 
our  minds  for  a  phase  of  God's  character  as  it 
was  to  appear  in  Jesus.  Above  all  things,  let 
us  think  not  of  Christ  as  a  priest  in  such 
a  way  as  to  make  God's  nature  farther  removed 
from  us,  approachable  not  directly,  but  only 
through  a  mediator,  but  think  of  His  priestly 
function  as  drawing  God's  character  closer  to 
us,  bringing  God  and  man  together. 

The  essential  element  of  a  priest's  office  is 
that  he  brings  God  and  man  together,  and  is 
thus  called  a  daysman,  mediator,  go-between, 
and  the  like.  The  atonement  gives  us  the 
priestly  view  of  God's  character  in  Christ  in 
that  it  exhibits  Him  as  thoroughly  sharing  our 
life.  How  the  priest  redeemed  the  people 
from  sin  by  sprinkling  them  with  blood,  or  by 
other  rites,  the  Jew  never  knew;  it  was  a 
locked  symbol;  he  only  knew  it  was  God's 
command.  If  we  say  that  we  can  only  guess 
why  God  pardons  us  for  His  Son's  prayers' 

»  Heb.  vii.  17.  In  Heb.  iii.  i,  Christ  is  called  "the  Apostle 
and  High  Priest  of  our  profession."  He  is  not  literally  one,  any 
more  than  He  is  literally  the  other. 

184 


THE   LIGHT   FROM   THE    CROSS 

sake,  we  fall  back  to  the  old  legal  darkness. 
It  is  not  Gospel  intelligence  to  hold  that  God 
only  forgives  us  "for  Christ's  sake"  because 
that  is  His  promise.  Reason  asks  at  once 
why  God  could  not  simply  forgive  us  directly; 
why  this  device  of  a  go-between?  But  when 
we  remember  that  *'God  was  in  Christ,"  we 
see  that  the  days-man  is  God  Himself.  It  was 
this  method  He  took  of  giving  humanity  cour- 
age to  approach  Him.  And  why  this  method? 
Again  we  take  the  idea  of  religion  as  God's 
personal  influence  to  make  this  plain. 

For,  as  to  personal  influence,  you  have 
noticed  that  association  with  a  very  pure, 
noble  nature  is  not  attractive  to  base  men. 
By  this  their  own  vileness  only  stands  out  the 
clearer.  The  whiteness  of  the  good  man 
shows  them  their  own  blackness.  So  it  was 
with  Peter;  when  the  divinity  of  our  Lord 
burst  in  on  his  mind,  he  fell  down,  crying, 
**Depart  from  me,  for  I  am  an  evil  man,  O 
Lord!"*  Knowing  one  to  be  holy,  evil  per- 
sons shun  him.  And  this  is  why,  although  all 
races  have  had  the  idea  of  God,  none  of  them 
have  ever  dared  conceive  of  Him  as  directly 
living    within    them.^     Knowing     themselves 

»  Luke  V.  8. 

«  It  was  the  glorious  news  of  the  Gospel,  on  the  contrary,  that 
"the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  within  you."  Lukexvii.21.  The  reader 
will  note  that  the  marginal  reading,  in  his  New  Testament,  of 
this  passage  is,  "among  you,"  instead  of  "within  you."  Meyer, 
the  great  exegete,  translates  the  word  Entos  human  (within  you), 
thus :    "  Intra  vos,  in  your  circle,  in  the  midst  of  you."    He  adds, 

185 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

corrupt,  the  farther  off  they  could  push  God 
the  better  they  would  feel.  Hence  they  made 
idols,  selected  priests  and  days-men,  some  sort 
of  mediator  being  desired  to  propitiate  this 
flawless  Being  it  troubled  them  to  think  on. 
Into  this  kind  of  savagery  Christianity  sank 
in  the  dark  ages,  losing  the  thought  of  the 
spiritual  immanence  of  God,  and  putting  Him 
afar  off,  connecting  themselves  with  Him  by 
a  procession  of  priests,  saints,  rites,  and  the 
Virgin.  The  ideal  of  purity  and  holiness  and 
absolute  right  was  in  men  all  the  while,  but  it 
only  tormented  them.  It  was  as  a  law,  terri- 
fying them;  as  a  God,  awful  in  vengeance. 
Thus  it  is  that  God,  in  any  other  forju  than  as 
the  Christy  works  by  His  influence  only  a  con- 
sciousness of  sin.  Men  fled  their  own  exalted 
ideals,  in  despair  of  ever  attaining  them. 
And  they  knew  nothing  of  God  except  as  One 
willing  for  them  to  flee — in  fact,  probably 
intending  Himself  to  damn  them  forever  from 
Himself  because  they  were  so  repugnant  to 
His  nature.  And  here  comes  in  the  priestly 
aspect  of  God  in  Christ.  For  as  Christ  He 
is  just  as  spotlessly  perfect,  yet  not  willing  for 
them  to  flee;  on  the  contrary,  coming  to  seek 
and  save,  sympathizing,  anxious  to  help,  will- 


that  there  is  no  objection,  on  the  score  of  grammar,  to  the  trans- 
lation "within  you,  within  your  souls";  but  Jesus  is  talking  to 
Pharisees,  and  the  kingdom  was  certainly  not  in  their 'ao\x\%.  See 
Meyer's  Commentary,  in  loc.  cit. 

i86 


THE    LIGHT   FROM    THE    CROSS 

ing  to  pass  by  sins  if  they  will  but  try  to  rise 
from  them.  Therefore  Christ's  priestliness 
consists  in  that  He  has  suffused  the  idea  of 
God's  holiness  with  the  idea  of  syjtipathy.  We 
no  longer  dread  this  kind  of  God.  "For  we 
have  not  an  High  Priest  which  cannot  be 
touched  with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmities; 
but  was  in  all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are, 
yet  without  sin.  Let  us  therefore  come  boldly 
to  the  throne  of  grace,  that  we  may  obtain 
mercy,  and  find  grace  to  help  in  time  of 
need."  ^ 

In  Christ  was  shown  that  trait  in  the  high- 
est ideal  of  perfect  character  that  men  never 
dreamed  of  before,  that  by  virtue  of  being  the 
highest  it  stoops  to  aid  the  lowest.  By  par- 
ticipating in  our  agony  God  showed  in  Christ 
His  approachableness,  so  that  we  that  were 
afar^  aliens  and  strangers,  are  made  nigh  by 
His  blood. 

We  therefore  see  how  it  was  necessary  to 
the  influence  of  God,  if  it  was  to  lift  the 
world,  that  He  should  show  Himself  to  us  as 
a  Lamb — that  is,  the  incarnation  of  the  spirit 
of  self-sacrifice— and  also  as  a  Priest — that  is, 
disclosing  to  us  the  fact  that  absolute  perfec- 
tion of  character  (that  is  to  say,  God)  is  not 
a  spirit  of  segregation  nor  of  asceticism,  but  of 
thorough  sympathy  and  helpfulness.      With- 

»  Heb.  iv.  15. 

187 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

out  these  two  notions  of  the  divine  character 
it  could  not  influence  us  as  it  does. 

We  pass  now  to  the  third  aspect  which  the 
Scriptures  give  the  atonement — namely,  that 
Christ  by  His  death  takes  away  our  sins  from 
us,  His  blood  cleanses  us  from  sin,  we  are 
washed  in  the  blood,  and  the  like,  the  sub- 
stantial thought  of  all  of  which  sayings  is  that 
somehow  Jesus'  death  causes  us  who  were 
sinful  to  be  pure.  The  great  difficulty  in 
grasping  this  idea,  the  reason  why  many 
minds  have  refused  to  accept  it,  and  have 
thought  it  to  seem  absurdly  illogical  and 
smacking  of  a  mediaeval  piece  of  theologic 
machinery,  is  that  the  penalty  of  sin  has  been 
tacitly  understood  to  be  the  main,  if  not  the 
only  thing  removed  by  the  atonement.  This 
is  a  part  of  the  old  materialistic  thought. 
The  chief  aim  of  redemption  in  that  pro- 
gramme being  to  get  man  into  a  place  called 
heaven  after  death,  of  course  the  principal 
requirement  was  to  remove  the  obstacle  which 
would  prevent  his  entrance  therein.  By  ac- 
cepting Jesus  as  one's  substitute  all  objection 
to  one's  citizenship  in  this  New  Jerusalem 
would  be  overcome.  But,  on  the  contrary, 
the  penalty  is  a  subsidiary  matter,  as  also  is 
the  heaven-place  after  death ;  these  are  fac- 
tors that  follow  as  necessary  consequences  to 
the  real,  vital  and  actual  work  of  redemption, 


THE   LIGHT   FROM   THE    CROSS 

which  consists  in  transforming  a  man  from  a 
beastly  creature  into  a  son  of  God,  renewing 
and  sublimating  his  character.  If  therefore 
our  main  contention  be  correct,  that  the 
regeneration  of  the  life,  and  not  the  removal 
of  the  penalty,  is  the  end  sought  in  salvation, 
it  must  follow  that  the  death  of  Jesus  must 
do  more  than  pay  the  price  that  satisfies  the 
divine  statutes  and  counterbalances  the  debit 
of  our  transgressions;  it  must  have  in  it  some 
potency  that  shall  actually  transform  man 
himself.     How,  then,  is  this  done? 

Sin's  seat  is  in  the  consciousness.  The 
genuine  repentance  for  sin  is  not  the  fear  of 
its  penalty,  but  the  grief  for  its  degrading 
presence.  The  problem,  therefore,  is  not  to 
remove  the  penalty  alone.  If  that  be  done 
without  taking  away  sin's  presence,  it  is  more 
a  curse  than  a  blessing,  for  in  the  proper 
order  of  God  present  sin  ought  to  feel  an 
impending  punishment;  and  a  salvation  which 
takes  away  the  punishment  without  purifying 
the  heart  from  that  which  deserves  punish- 
ment would  be  an  immoral  salvation,  a  salva- 
tion indeed  by  the  devil,  not  by  Christ. 

Jesus,  therefore,  died  to  remove  sin  from 
the  consciousness  of  men.  He  was  not  mani- 
fested in  order  to  show  us  how  God  manages 
affairs  in  the  court-room  of  the  heavenly 
assize,  not  to  complete  the  body  of  divine 
189 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 


legal  lore,  not  to  give  coherency  to  some 
*'system  of  theology"  ;  but  "ye  know  that  He 
was  manifested  to  take  away  our  sins."  ^  He 
came  not  to  complete  the  logical  syllogism  by 
which  sinners  are  to  be  reckoned  non-sin- 
ners; He  came  that  "He  might  destroy  the 
works  of  the  devil.  "^  It  is  not  alone  the 
results  of  a  low  life  He  is  to  save  us  from;  it 
is  the  low  life  itself  He  is  to  change  into  a 
higher;  results  are  secondary.  The  glory  of 
His  work  consists  not  in  that  those  who  be- 
lieve on  Him  escape  the  penalty  of  sin;  but, 
better  than  that,  and  broadly  including  that 
and  swallowing  it  up.  His  glorious  work  is 
consummated  in  that  "whosoever  abideth  in 
Him  sinneth  not.  "^  "As  many  as  received 
Him,  to  them  gave  He  power  to  become  the 
sons  of  God."  * 

To  take  away  sins,  therefore,  in  any  true 
sense,  Christ  must  needs  operate  upon  our 
sinful  past,  not  to  minify  it  by  giving  us  the 
idea  that  it  is  not  so  bad  after  all;  not  to 
evade  it  by  assuring  us  that  its  punishment 
has  been  annulled;  but  by  giving  us  a  new 
consciousness  unburdened  with  the  past.  One 
cannot  escape  from  himself.  He  has  been 
sinful.  As  long  as  he  lives  he  must  bear  that 
record  with  him.     Only  death,  or  a  cessation 

>  I  John  iii.  5.  •  i  John  iii.  6. 

'  I  John  iii.  8.  *  John  i.  12. 

190 


THE   LIGHT    FROM   THE   CROSS 

of  consciousness  can  eliminate  it.  The  only- 
way  to  kill  sin  is  to  kill  the  man.  It  is 
bone  of  his  bone.  Consequently  it  is  just  this 
that  the  Saviour  of  man  does  for  him.  He 
destroys  the  old  consciousness  and  gives  a 
new  one.  This  is  the  divine  miracle  in  re- 
demption. 

To  understand  something  of  this,  which  is 
not  after  all  so  strange  as  it  may  seem,  take 
a  simple  analogy.  In  common  speech  we 
often  say,  "I  am  a  new  man."  Some  impor- 
tant event  happens  in  our  life  that  seems  to 
make  the  past  slough  off  and  to  cause  our  life 
to  emerge  into  a  new  sphere  of  experience,  by 
which  we  enter  into  new  sensations,  views, 
hopes,  and  convictions,  and  by  which  our 
relation  to  all  things  seems  changed.  Crudely 
speaking,  some  such  change  occurs  when 
after  being  long  sick  we  regain  health;  there- 
after our  mind  is  so  altered  in  its  fundamental 
operations  that  we  look  back  upon  the  morbid 
state  in  which  we  were  of  late  as  upon  the 
state  of  another  man.*  So,  also,  it  is  with 
personal  influence;  when  we  come  to  know  a 
good  and  noble  man  and  to  be  with  him,  his 
feelings,    views,    and    whole   atmosphere    are 


'  '"  Cleomenes,  the  son  of  Anaxandridas,  being  sick,  his  friends 
reproached  him  that  he  had  humors  and  whimsies  that  were  new 
and  unaccustomed.  *  I  believe  it.'  sai  I  he,  '  neither  am  I  the  same 
man  now  as  when  I  am  in  liealth:  being  now  another  thing,  my 
opinions  and  fancies  are  also  other  than  tney  were  before.'  "—Plu- 
tarch's Apothegms  of  the  Lacedaimonians. 

191 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

subtly  absorbed  by  us,  and  we  are  so  changed 
into  his  likeness  that  we  begin  to  recognize 
his  attributes  as  our  own;  we  look  back  upon 
our  former  life,  before  we  knew  him,  as  upon 
the  life  of  another  person.  Particularly  is 
this  the  case  if  we  find  out  after  a  while  some 
heroic  and  exalted  deed  our  friend  has  done 
for  us,  the  light  of  which  irradiates  over  all 
his  life  and  brings  him  nearer  to  us.  Thus, 
in  some  such  manner,  does  the  personal  influ- 
ence of  God  operate  upon  us  in  the  atoning 
death  and  present  companionship  of  Christ. 

Being  brought  to  know  God  by  receiving 
now  His  Spirit,  we  become  changed ;  being 
aware  that  this  Being,  whom  we  know,  has 
done  so  wondrous  a  deed  for  us  as  to  suffer  and 
die  in  order  to  reveal  Himself  to  us,  we  are 
pricked  to  the  heart  and  stirred  up  to  new 
nobility.  ''Therefore,"  says  Paul,  "if  any 
man  be  in  Christ  Jesus,  he  is  a  new  creature; 
old  things  have  passed  away;  behold,  all 
things  have  become  new."  ^  Our  former  life, 
with  its  sins  and  all  their  future  penalty  of 
alienation  from  Him,  is  gone.  The  coming  in 
of  the  divine  Spirit  has  killed  our  old  self;  it 
has  perished  as  a  hateful  memory,  and  "he 
that  is  dead  [and  only  he]  is  freed  from  sin.  "'^ 
Henceforth  "for  me  to  live  is  Christ."' 

This  is  the  reality  of  which  the  purification 

*  2  Cor.  V.  17.  »  Rom.  vi.  7.  '  Phil.  i.  21. 

192 


THE   LIGHT   FROM   THE   CROSS 

by  blood  at  the  Jewish  altar  was  the  symbol. 
The  sprinkling  of  blood,  or  any  other  lustral 
rite,  did  not  actually  purge  sins  away;  it  only 
illustrated  the  way  in  which  God  would  pro- 
ceed in  the  actuality.  The  author  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  gives  the  law  of  real 
purification:  "Worshipers  once  purged  should 
have  no  more  conscience  of  sins.  But  in 
those  sacrifices,  under  the  law,  there  was  no 
purging,  but  a  remembrance  again  made  of 
sins  every  year.  But  we  are  sanctified  through 
the  offering  of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ  once 
for  all."* 

Now,  when  we  imagine  God  merely  reckons 
our  sins  to  be  no  sins  by  a  sort  of  legal  fiction, 
and  because  of  the  satisfaction  made  to  His 
sense  of  justice  by  the  sacrifice  of  Christ, 
merely  calls  our  sins  removed  and  imputes 
unto  us  righteousness,  we  are  setting  aside 
the  present  work  of  the  atoning  Spirit,  we  are 
confining  the  whole  matter  to  a  mechanical 
performance,  and  we  are  but  erecting  a  new 
system  of  Judaism,  differing  not  one  whit  from 
the  reasoning  process  of  the  old,  although  we 
put  the  Christ  in  the  same  place  that  the 
Jews  put  the  lamb.  Though  we  may  name 
this  system  Christianity,  it  is  no  different  from 
the  Mosaic  dispensation.  It  is  the  same 
arrangement  and  process,   with  a  new  sacri- 

*  Heb.  X.  2,  3,  10, 

193 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

fice;  we  simply  substitute  the  divinely  chosen 
victim  on  the  altar.  But  we  must  remember 
that  God  did  not  say  He  would  change  merely 
the  sacrifice;  it  was  the  whole  old  covenant^  the 
whole  arrangement  and  process,  that  He 
promised  to  abolish  and  to  substitute  a  new  one. 
**Behold,  the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord,  when 
I  will  make  a  new  covenant  with  the  house  of 
Israel;  not  according  to  the  covenant  that  I 
made  with  their  fathers;  but  this  is  the  cove- 
nant I  will  make  after  those  days,  saith  the 
Lord ;  /  will  put  My  laws  into  their  viind  a?id 
write  them  in  their  hearts;  a?id  they  shall  all  know 
Me,  fro7n  the  least  to  the  greatest. "  ^  If  this 
means  anything  at  all,  it  means  that  the  cove- 
nant in  Christ  signifies  a  taking  away  of  sins 
not  by  any  sort  of  ceremony,  type,  legal  fiction, 
or  logical  process  at  all,  but  by  a  transforma- 
tion of  the  human  soul  by  the  entrance  in 
upon  it  of  the  divine  soul,  and  the  consequent 
alteration  of  the  very  consciousness  of  man 
so  that  God's  laws  should  be  ingrained  in  the 
mind  and  heart. 

This  important  conclusion  carries  with  it 
another  and  not  less  important  discovery,  and 
that  is,  that  sin  is  taken  away  by  the  Lamb  of 
God's  sacrifice  only  as  we  become  new  crea- 
tures in  Christ  Jesus.  To  speak  technically, 
regeneration    and  forgiveness  are  the  same 

*  Heb.  viii.  8-11. 

194 


THE   LIGHT   FROM   THE    CROSS 

thing.  We  are  forgiven  only  as  we  are  regen- 
erated. The  act  of  forgiveness  is  not  merely 
"an  act  of  the  divine  mind,"  which  we  can 
know  takes  place  only  because  God  promises 
to  forgive  when  we  "repent  and  believe"; 
for  that  kind  of  an  agreement  or  covenant  be- 
tween God  and  man — that  is  to  say,  the  kind 
of  covenant  whereby  God  agrees  to  do  a  cer- 
tain thing  provided  we  do  a  certain  other 
thing;  God  promises  to  forgive  if  we  believe 
and  repent — is  done  away  with,  being  the 
temporary,  typic,  and  formal  kind  of  cove- 
nant He  made  with  the  Jews.  We  now  have 
"a  new  and  living  way"  of  cleansing  from 
sin,  or  forgiving;  it  is  by  the  present  imma- 
nent Christ-God  entering  the  soul  of  man  by 
His  Spirit  and  actually  removing  the  old  con- 
sciousness with  its  sin  stains  and  giving  us  a 
new  life.  This  is  the  Gospel;  the  other  is 
Judais77i.  This  is  Pauline;  the  other  is  Latin. 
This  is  the  religion  of  the  apostles  and  the 
religion  of  to-morrow;  the  other  is  the  reli- 
gion of  the  logic-mongers  and  the  religion  of 
yesterday. 

Only  as  we  are  regenerated  are  our  sins 
removed.  The  old  ordinance  with  its  fictions 
and  forms  is  vanished;  the  reality  is  here. 
The  difference  is  exhibited  in  the  common 
misquoting  of  a  certain  text  of  Paul  by  the 
careless  preacher;  we  have  often  heard  it 
195 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

quoted  that  "we  are  justified  freely  by  His 
grace  through  Jesus  Christ,  whom  God  hath 
set  forth  to  be  the  propitiation  through  faith 
in  His  blood  for  the  remission  of  sins  that 
are  past;  that  He  might  be  just,  and  the  justi- 
fier  of  the  ungodly. "  ^  A  very  crude  mistake 
to  be  sure,  for  the  passage  ends  thus,  "the 
justifier  of  him  that  believeth  in  Jesus. "  And 
yet  the  very  fact  that  the  error  is  sometimes 
made,  and  the  added  fact  that  it  seems,  at 
first  thought,  to  mean  after  all  the  same  thing, 
show  how  subtly  the  Latin  theology  has  cor- 
rupted the  apostolic  idea.  For  if  the  atone- 
ment is  a  mere  plan,  working  without  the 
present  power  of  God's  personal  influence  as 
a  Spirit,  there  is  nothing  wrong  with  God's 
"justifying  the  ungodly";  but  the  real  truth 
is  that  the  ungodly  are  never  justified  ex- 
cept as  they  cease  to  be  ungodly,  and  they 
are  justified  when  they  are  in  Christ  simply 
because  they  do  cease  to  be  ungodly. 

If  any  man  presumes  his  sins  to  be  gone, 
merely  because  he  has  accepted  Jesus  as  his 
substitute,  yet  not  having  his  nature  changed 
by  the  personal  influence  of  God,  he  is  mis- 
taken. His  sins  are  not  gone;  their  whole 
power  and  guilt  remain  upon  him.  The  sac- 
rifice of  the  Christ-Lamb  is  of  no  more  virtue 
than  that  of  the  Mosaic  lamb,  when  taken  apart 

»  Rom.  iii.  26. 

196 


THE   LIGHT    FROM   THE   CROSS 

from  "the  power  of  His  resurrection"— that 
is,  His  present  actual  influence  as  a  Spirit  on 
the  soul.  Unless  he  be  changed,  or  "con- 
verted," he  is  not  forgiven ;  for  "except  ye  be 
converted,  ye  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of 
God."  To  attempt  to  draw  a  distinction  be- 
tween the  act  of  forgiveness  on  God's  part, 
and  of  conversion  on  our  part,  is  to  put 
asunder  what  God  hath  joined  together. 

Notice  how,  in  apostolic  teaching,  the  wash- 
ing away  of  sin  is  nearly  always  coupled  with 
the  creation  of  a  new  life.  To  the  apostles' 
minds  the  new  birth  is  itself  the  dropping 
away  of  the  old  sins,  for  our  old  sins  only  go 
with  our  old  self.  This  is  cleansing  by  the 
living  Lamb  who  gave  His  life  for  us  on  Cal- 
vary that  He  might  now  daily  give  His  life  to 
us.  Christ  fills  the  old  form  to  overflowing 
with  life  and  power.  Peter  says  Christ  bare 
our  sins  on  the  tree  "that  we,  being  dead  to 
sins,  should  live  unto  righteousness."^  The 
passing  of  sin  without  the  entrance  of  a  new 
life  is  a  purely  intellectual  fancy,  and  has  no 
foundation  in  fact.  "There  is,  therefore, 
now  no  condemnation  to  them  which  are  in 
Christ  Jesus,"  writes  Paul,  but  straightway 
qualifies  by  adding  "who  walk  not  after  the 
flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit."^  We  are  freed 
"from  sin  and  death,"  not  by  a  fiction  or  the 

*  I  Pet.  ii.  24.  •  Rom.  viii.  i. 

197 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

mere  acceptance  of  a  fact,  but  by  "the  law  of 
the  spirit  of  life'' ;  and  "if  any  man  has  not 
the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none  of  His."  ^ 

If  all  we  have  to  do  in  order  to  get  rid  of 
sins  is  to  accept  and  believe  in  the  plan  as  it 
is  formally  declared,  why  not  go  on  accepting 
and  go  on  sinning?  A  great  many  doubtless 
so  live.  To  them  the  Christ  is  but  another 
Jewish  lamb  which  merely  "calls  to  remem- 
brance" their  sins  and  assures  them  of  their 
escape  from  the  penalty  of  them.  With  no 
life  such  as  God's  personal  influence  creates, 
they  consider  themselves  "saved,"  because 
they  accept  the  creed,  acknowledge  the  syllo- 
gism, and  make  the  oblatory  prayer  at  due 
intervals.  Paul  had  this  very  kind  of  people 
to  contend  with.  Precisely  the  same  dead 
Judaistic  cast  of  thought  about  Christ  faced 
him  as  now  faces  us.  The  sixth  chapter  of 
Romans  is  extremely  timely  and  up  to  date. 
"What!"  he  exclaims,  "shall  we  continue  to 
sin  because  God  promises  to  take  them  all 
away?  God  forbid!  How  shall  we,  who  are 
dead  to  sin,  live  any  longer  therein?"^  Thus 
he  does  not  meet  the  argument  of  these  mis- 
taken persons,  but  he  repudiates  th^'ir  premises, 
rejects  their  point  of  view,  as  much  as  to  say 
that  salvation  is  not  so  much  making  sinners 
secure  of  a  future  heaven  as  it  is  making  sin- 

'  Rom.  viii.  '  Rom.  vi.  1-2. 

198 


THE    LIGHT    FROM    THE    CROSS 

ners  cease  to  be  sinners.  He  uses  another 
illustration:  "What!  then,  shall  we  sin  be- 
cause we  are  not  under  the  law,  but  under 
grace?  God  forbid!  Know  ye  not  that  when 
ye  were  sinners  ye  were  sin's  servants  and 
under  sin's  influence;  but  now,  God  be 
thanked!  ye  are  under  the  righteous  influence 
of  God,  freed  from  sin  only  as  ye  become  ser- 
vants of  righteousness. ' '  ^  Still  again  he  turns 
the  subject  to  a  third  phase,  comparing  us  to 
a  woman  formerly  married  to  sin,  but  sin  hav- 
ing died,  now  remarried  to  righteousness;  and 
if  she  marry  another  man  while  the  first  hus- 
band lives,  she  is  an  adulteress,  so  that  one 
claiming  to  be  God's  man  and  still  living  with 
sin  is  a  spiritual  adulteress.^  Thus  by  these 
three  examples,  that  of  the  dead  come  to  life, 
that  of  a  servant  of  one  man  transferred  to 
another,  and  that  of  a  woman  set  free  by 
death  from  a  husband,  he  makes  clear  to  any 
one  who  will  see,  that  the  efficacy  of  Jesus' 
blood  avails  only  those  in  whom  His  present 
Spirit  works  an  utter  severance  of  the  new 
life  from  the  former  life. 

The  author  of  Hebrews  says  that  "once 
purged  from  sin  we  should  have  no  more  con- 
science of  sins"  ^  in  us.  John  echoes  this, 
saying  that  we  have  confidence  toward  God 
because  "our  hearts  condemn   us  not";*  and 

'  Rom.  vi.  15-22  *  Heb.  X.  2. 

'  Rom.  vii.  1-4.  *  i  John  iii.  21. 

199 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

Paul,  also,  "The  Spirit  beareth  witness  with 
our  spirit  that  we  are  the  children  of  God."  ^ 
Thus  I  do  not  merely  blindly  believe  God  con- 
siders me  not  a  sinner,  but  I  am  conscious  of 
not  being  a  slave  of  sin.  How  this  God's 
influence  comes  upon  me  and  raises  me  up  to 
be  another  man,  transfiguring,  as  it  were,  my 
very  self,  Paul  vividly  thus  sets  forth:  "I  am 
dead  to  the  law  that  I  might  live  unto  God. 
I  am  crucified  with  Christ,  nevertheless  I 
live ;  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me;  and  the 
life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  by  the 
faith  of  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me,  and 
gave  Himself  for  me."  ^ 

This  may  shed  welcome  light  upon  a  cer- 
tain dark  passage  of  Scripture  that  has 
troubled  many  souls:  *'For  if  we  sin  willfully 
after  that  we  have  received  the  knowledge  of 
the  truth,  there  remaineth  no  more  sacrifice 
for  sins,  but  a  certain  fearful  looking  for  of 
judgment  and  indignation."^  For  not  a  few 
have  considered  this  to  mean  that  if  a  truly 
converted  man  fall  into  sin  he  cannot  again 
be  forgiven,  a  meaning  wholly  repugnant  to 
the  general  trend  of  all  Christ's  and  the  apos- 
tles' teaching.  But  the  language  of  this  text 
is  significant  of  its  true  meaning.  It  is  not 
said  there  remaineth  no  vaovt  forgiveness,  but 
*'no  more  sacrifice  for  sins."     Now,  we  have 

'  Rom.  viii.  i6.  '  Gal.  ii.  ig,  20.  *  Heb.  x.  26,  27. 

200 


THE   LIGHT   FROM    THE   CROSS 

seen  that  one  gets  the  benefit  of  Christ's  sacri- 
fice only  by  His  changing  of  him  into  a  new 
man;  therefore  one  who  goes  on  willfully  sin- 
ning, yet  claiming  the  merit  of  the  atonement, 
is  reminded  that  when  he  ceases  to  be  a  new 
creature,  at  that  moment  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ  ceases  to  avail  him.  He  is  counting 
on  the  sacrifice  covering  his  presumptuous 
sins,  when  "there  remaineth  no  more  sacri- 
fice." For  Jesus'  sacrifice  is  of  virtue  to  us, 
not  merely  as  a  part  of  a  plan,  but  only  as  it 
changes  our  natures. 

So,  also,  is  it  with  the  "sin  against  the 
Holy  Ghost"  that  will  never  be  forgiven  in 
this  world  nor  the  next.^  The  Holy  Spirit 
is  God^  is  Christy  as  immanent  in  the  world 
and  operative  upon  us.  He  alone  can  cleanse 
us  from  sin  by  enduing  us  with  a  new  life. 
Hence,  to  sin  against  Him — that  is,  to  close 
ourselves  against  His  influence — is  simply  to 
reject  the  only  thing  in  heaven  or  earth  that 
can  deliver  us  from  sin.  Thus  this  dictum 
about  the  unpardonable  sin  is  reasonable 
when  we  accept  the  view  of  religion  set  forth 
in  this  essay.  But  if  Christ  atones  for  all 
sin  by  His  death  alone,  without  the  added 
necessity  of  the  personal  influence  of  His 
Spirit  on  men's  life,  then  it  is  unreasonable, 
artificial,     and    statutory.       God's    influence 

*  See  Matt,  xviii.  22,  etc. 

201 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

alone  saves  men.  Of  this  influence  the  fact 
of  His  death  in  the  incarnate  Son  is  a  neces- 
sary part,  yet  that  historic  death  without  His 
personal  influence  directly  upon  the  life  is 
valueless.  It  is  only  as  a  Spirit  that  He 
comes  in  contact  with  us  to  influence  us  per- 
sonally. Hence  it  is  that  whosoever  rejects 
that /^rj-^;/^/ touch  rejects  the  only  thing  that 
can  save  him.  How  can  "the  sin  against  the 
Holy  Ghost"  be  forgiven  when  forgiveness 
itself  means  the  entrance  of  that  Spirit  into 
the  life? 

And  now  we  come  to  see  why  it  is  that  the 
resurrection  is  the  crowning  theme  of  the 
Gospel,  and  why  without  the  resurrection 
the  atonement  means  nothing  at  all  to  us. 
For  it  is  not  the  fact  that  Christ  died,  but  the 
fact  that  having  died^  He  now  lives  to  use  that 
death,  that  is  our  salvation.  Unless  He  apply 
His  blood,  it  is  of  no  merit.  We  cannot  get 
any  benefit  from  His  sacrifice  except  as 
receiving  it  at  the  hands  of  the  living,  risen, 
present  Christ-Spirit.  So,  therefore,  the 
apostles  continually  couple  the  death  with  the 
resurrection.  As  He  died  at  the  hands  of  sin, 
so  let  us  crucify  our  old  man  with  his  lusts 
and  lawlessness,  put  him  to  death  as  one  of 
the  survivors  of  the  mob  that  slew  our  Lord, 
bury  him  by  the  similitude  of  baptism,  and 
then  let  us  rise  in  newness  of  life,  even  as  the 
202 


THE   LIGHT   FROM   THE   CROSS 

Saviour  rose,  viewing  all  our  past  career  as 
an  accursed  thing;  henceforth  let  us  be  filled 
with  God,  having  eternal  life,  sitting  in 
heaven.  "Reckon  yourselves  dead  to  sin," 
cries  Paul,  "and  alive  unto  God.  They  that 
are  Christ's  have  crucified  the  flesh  and  its 
evil  passions;  let  us  now  live  and  walk  in  a 
new  atmosphere,  even  God.  If  the  Spirit  of 
the  rising  Jesus  dwell  in  you,  He  shall  also 
make  quick  and  alive  your  mortal  bodies."  ^ 

As  our  rising  from  the  dead  puts  on  us  a 
celestial  body,  let  us,  also,  risen  from  the 
death  of  our  old  selves,  "put  on  the  Lord 
Jesus. "^  He  is  to  be  our  new  garment;  the 
old  we  have  cast  away.  Now,  one  is  not 
conscious  of  himself,  he  is  conscious  of  his 
clothes;  that  is,  he  thinks  of  himself  not  as 
naked  but  as  clothed.  Even  so  we  will  no 
more  consider  our  own  weak  personalities, 
but  will  present  ourselves  to  ourselves  as 
endued  with  God.  The  old  appetencies  may 
remain,  evil  tastes  and  habits  may  linger  in 
the  new  creature ;  but  I  will  not  think  of  them 
as  myself,  "but  sin  that  dwelleth  in  me,"' 
yet  a  sin  impotent  because  of  the  Slayer  of 
sin  that  rules  me.  It  will  take  time  and 
cultivation  to  be  wholly  absorbed  into  the 
Spirit's  image;    traces    of  sin's    marks    will 

»  Rom.  vii.  2-13  and  viii.  11.  '  Rom.  vii.  17. 

'  Gal.  iii.  27  and  Col.  iii. 

203 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

remain,  evidences  also  of  its  power  to  tempt; 
but  Christ  is  Master;  day  by  day  He  will  de- 
liver me.  John  alludes  to  this  dual  conscious- 
ness: "If  we  say  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive 
ourselves,"^  he  says  in  one  place;  and  yet  in 
another  place:  "Whosoever  is  born  of  God 
doth  not  commit  sin;  whoso  commits  sin  is  of 
the  devil."  ^  This  is  a  contradiction,  and  we 
must  remember  that  the  Spirit  that  inspired 
the  Scriptures  inspired  also  its  contradictions^ 
and  that  in  the  form  of  two  conflicting  state- 
ments we  often  get  a  truer  view  of  the  real 
truth  than  could  be  presented  in  any  other 
way.  The  point  with  John  is  that  the  over- 
mastering consciousness  is  of  myself  as  a  sin- 
less being  like  the  God-Spirit  I  freely  receive, 
but  beneath  ever  remains  the  sub-conscious- 
ness of  myself  as  a  frail  and  erring  man.  The 
problem  of  life  is  more  and  more  to  lose  the 
old  in  the  fullness  of  the  new:  '"'Now  are  we 
the  sons  of  God,  and  it  doth  not  yet  appear 
what  we  shall  be,  but  we  know  that  when  He 
shall  appear  we  shall  be  like  Him.''  ^ 

We  pass  now  to  consider  the  atonement  as 
not  only  typified  in  the  old  forms  as  a  cleans- 
ing, but  as  a  transfer  of  our  sins  over  upon 
God.  "He  bare  our  sins  in  His  own  body  on 
the  tree.  "*     The  scapegoat  bore  away  into 

'  I  John  i.  8.  '  I  John  iii.  2. 

»  I  John  iii.  9.  *  i  Pet.  ii.  24. 

204 


THE   LIGHT   FROM   THE   CROSS 

the  wilderness  the  sins  of  the  people/  But 
God  in  Christ  does  not  bear  our  sins ///j/ «^ 
the  scapegoat;  that  was  a  mere  form.  The 
goat  did  not  really  bear  away  the  transgres- 
sions of  the  people,  and  they  knew  it  to  be 
only  a  shadow.  But  Christ  bears  our  sins  like 
the  scapegoat  in  form,  but  unlike  it  because 
He  does  really  take  them  on  Himself.  And 
only  by  keeping  in  mind  that  all  Christ's  life 
and  death  are  explainable  only  by  His  still 
being  present  as  an  immanent  Spirit  can  we 
understand  the  substance  of  which  the  old 
ceremony  was  a  picture.  We  are  not  to 
understand  Jesus'  bearing  our  sins  upon  the 
cross  as  a  fact,  but  as  the  introduction  to  a 
fact.  We  were  not  living  then,  and  how  could 
He  bear  our  sins  when  as  yet  we  were  not 
born?  Hence  we  see  that  this  bearing  of  the 
evil  consequences  of  the  sins  of  those  human 
beings  in  that  age  in  which  He  lived  in  the 
body  is  to  show  us  that  He  now  and  forever, 
'*once  for  all,"  bears  the  sins  of  all  men  who 
will  come  to  know  Him  as  the  immanent 
Spirit.  What  is  it  to  bear  sin?  Evidently  to 
take  upon  Himself  the  effect  of  sin.  Now, 
that  effect  is  its  pernicious,  ruinous  influence 
upon  our  character,  and  He  now  as  a  helpful 
Spirit  actually  removes  from  us  these  effects. 
He  does  this  by  virtue  of  having  suffered  and 

*  Lev.  xvi.  8-10. 

205 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

died.  As  we  see  Him  enduring  all  that  sin 
can  do  to  harm,  we  receive  the  idea  of  His 
sympathy  and  help  in  us.  The  struggles  and 
temptations  of  sin,  therefore,  coming  to  us 
are  met  and  swallowed  up  by  the  influence 
within  us  of  this  Man  who  "was  tempted  in 
all  points  like  as  we  are."^  Knowing  Him, 
we  walk  daily  with  One  who  feels  all  our 
trials,  equipped  by  His  experience  in  the  flesh 
to  be  the  'Xaptain  of  our  salvation. "  "^  Com- 
ing thus  to  Him  in  every  hour  of  need,  pour- 
ing all  our  woes  into  His  ear,  "casting  all  our 
cares  upon  Him  who  careth  for  us,"^  fighting 
no  more  against  sin,  but  simply  passing  the 
conflict  over  to  Him,  we  know  that  He  did 
not  merely  once  bear  the  penalty  of  our  evil, 
but  that  He  does  now  contifiually  bear  all  our 
present  evils.  "Surely  He  hath  borne  our 
griefs  and  carried  our  sorrows.  He  was 
wounded  for  our  transgressions.  He  was 
bruised  for  our  iniquities;  the  chastisement  of 
our  peace  was  upon  Him,  and  with  His 
stripes  we  are  healed."  * 

Again,  there  is  another  phase  of  the  atone- 
ment presented  by  the  apostles.  Jesus  is  said 
to  be  our  Redeemer,  by  His  blood  to  have 
bought  us.  Paul  declares  we  are  not  our  own 
but  we  are  bought  with  a  price  ;^  Peter,  that 

'  Heb.  iv.  15.  *  Isa.  liii. 

•  Heb.  ii.  10.  •  i  Cor.  vi.  20. 

»  1  Pet.  V,  7. 

206 


THE   LIGHT   FROM    THE    CROSS 

we  were  not  purchased  by  silver  and  gold  and 
such  corruptible  things,  but  by  the  priceless 
blood  of  Christ.^  What  is  the  meaning  of 
this?  Let  us  see.  To  buy  a  thing  is  to 
acquire  ownership  of  it;  thereafter  we  have  a 
claim  upon  it  as  ours.  Now,  it  is  of  course 
impossible  to  own  a  sentient  spirit,  endowed 
with  a  free  will,  as  one  would  own  a  horse. 
How  do  you  own  your  friend  or  lover  or  wife? 
Only  in  so  far  as  you  have  claims  upon  them, 
claims  of  affection  and  loyalty.  The  Bible 
frequently  uses  the  analogy  of  wife  and  hus- 
band to  show  the  relation  between  God  and 
His  people.^  Now,  what  sort  of  a  price  can 
a  man  pay  for  a  true  wife?  There  is  but  one 
price — love.  This  is  the  price  God  pays  for 
us.  It  is  said  to  be  paid  by  Jesus'  blood  be- 
cause God's  pouring  out  His  life  in  Christ's 
death  was  the  profoundest  and  most  moving 
spectacle  and  declaration  of  love;  "greater 
love  hath  no  man  than  this.  "^  So  great  a 
love,  manifested  so  feelingly,  at  once  estab- 
lishes an  imperial  claim  upon  us.  Akin  to 
Him  by  nature,  we  are  proper  subjects  of  His 
love;  there  is  nothing  contrary  to  nature  in 
our  union.  Unworthy  of  Him  by  nature,  we 
make  His  display  of  affection  the  more  illus- 
trious. That  God,  who  as  Christ  commended 
His  love  to  us  by  dying,  yet  lives  not  far  from 

*  I  Pet.  i.  19.  "  Jer.  iii.  14,  etc.  '  John  xv.  13. 

207 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

any  one  of  us,  if  haply  we  may  feel  for  Him 
and  find  Him.  His  claim  upon  us  is  only  a 
claim  of  love;  He  puts  by  His  other  claims. 
To  the  ownership  of  love  there  is  but  one 
crime,  it  is  neglect  and  coldness;  there  is 
but  one  requital,  it  is  to  love  in  return.  To 
grovel  before  Him  as  subjects  before  an  Ori- 
ental monarch,  to  pay  Him  only  outward, 
formal  obeisance  by  church  rites  and  rever- 
ence, to  crucify  ourselves  in  a  desperate 
struggle  to  keep  His  laws,  all  without  letting 
Him  into  our  hearts,  and  to  suppose  that  by 
these  means  we  acknowledge  His  claim — this 
is  to  wound  and  pain  Him.  For  what  does 
love  require  but  love  again?  And  what  does 
a  yearning  Father  ask  but  affectionate  trust? 
And  of  what  value  to  such  a  Father  are  all 
moralities,  reverences,  and  ceremonies  except 
as  indications  of  an  inward  joy  in  Him  and  a 
desire  to  please  Him  we  love?  Therefore, 
we  conclude  that  Jesus  did  not  buy  us  in  the 
sense  of  one  of  the  persons  of  the  Trinity  pay- 
ing a  blood  price  demanded  by  another  person 
of  the  Trinity,  but  in  this  sense,  that  God  was 
in  Christ  purchasing  the  love  and  confidence, 
the  gratitude  and  trust  of  all  humanity  by 
revealing  Himself  as  One  altogether  lovely, 
self-giving  and  beneficent. 

We  thus  perceive  that  when  we  apprehend 
the  atonement  as  the  equipment  of  God's  per- 
208 


THE   LIGHT   FROM   THE   CROSS 

sonality  so  to  present  Himself  to  men  as  to 
save  them,  we  have  such  a  view  of  this  great 
doctrine  as  reconcile'S  all  that  is  anywhere 
said  of  it  in  the  Scriptures.  Our  God  is  no 
more  a  far-off,  dreaded  Deity.  He  is  a  self- 
sacrificing  God,  in  Christ  as  the  Lamb  pouring 
out  His  blood  and  life  for  us;  He  is  a  priestly 
God,  in  Christ  coming  close  to  us  that  we  may 
see  His  anxious  face  and  feel  His  throbbing 
heart;  He  removes  our  sins,  by  the  entrance 
of  the  Christ-Spirit  into  us,  giving  us  a  new 
consciousness  of  ourselves ;  He  bears  our  sins, 
being  as  an  immanent  Christ-Spirit  ever  pres- 
ent to  hear,  to  help,  to  uphold,  and  to 
strengthen,  "with  every  temptation  to  provide 
a  way  of  escape,"^  with  His  grace  to  be  all- 
sufficient  for  us  in  every  trial;  He  is  our 
Owner,  not  as  one  owns  slaves  and  chattels, 
but  our  owner  by  the  right  and  title  of  a 
matchless  love  that  awakens  a  loyal  response 
in  every  true  man. 

An  objection  that  may  be  argued  against 
this  view  of  the  atonement  is  that,  after  all, 
it  makes  Christ's  death  essentially  theatrical; 
that  is,  it  makes  Him  to  die,  not  because 
He  must  pay  the  penalty  of  men's  sins,  but 
merely  to  show  or  to  illustrate  the  character 
of  God.  But  this  objection  probably  arises 
from  confusion  of  thought  due  to  the  strong 

>  I  Cor.  X.  13. 

209 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

bias  which  the  priestly  terminology  gives  to 
the  Lamb  of  God's  sacrifice.  Reduced  to  its 
simplest  terms  the  objection  amounts  to  this: 
if  Christ's  death  did  not  satisfy  divine  justice, 
then  He  had  no  good  reason  to  die.  But  it 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  according  to  this 
personal  influence  theory,  Jesus'  death  did 
exalt  divine  justice,  and  did  it  in  the  only 
way  the  inflexible  law  of  sin's  punishment  can 
best  be  emphasized — that  is,  by  the  voluntary 
submission  of  the  innocent  to  the  conse- 
quences of  sin.  His  death  did  pay  our  price, 
not  the  price  needed  to  placate  the  resent- 
ment of  Deity,  to  be  sure,  but  the  price  of 
love  which  alone  can  purchase  hearts.  His 
death  did  provide  us  a  substitute,  not  a  sub- 
stitute on  Calvary  alone,  by  which  all  sinners 
escape  their  penalty,  but  a  continual,  living 
substitute,  also,  for  all  men  everywhere  who 
will  use  Him.  His  death  was  absolutely  neces- 
sary, not  because  Deity  must  be  appeased, 
but  because  Deity  must^  in  the  fullness  of 
time,  thus  disclose  His  true  self  to  mankind. 
Those  terms  which  seem  to  imply  the  uni- 
versal salvation  of  all  men,  good  and  bad,  are 
simply  inexplicable  by  the  Latin  theology. 
Christ  is  said  to  be  "the  propitiation  not  of 
our  sins  only,  but  also  for  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world."  ^     Now,  if  all  that  was  needed 

*  I  John  ii.  2. 

2IO 


THE   LIGHT   FROM   THE    CROSS 

was  to  provide  men  a  substitute  in  the  divine 
court-room,  why  cannot  all  sinners  as  well  as 
saints  be  saved?  This  sort  of  universalism 
was  the  legitimate  offspring  of  the  old  the- 
ology. The  only  way  to  avoid  it  was  to  hold 
that  God  had  foreordained  certain  elect  souls 
for  salvation  and  the  rest  for  reprobation,  or 
else  to  hold  that  while  the  merits  of  the  atone- 
ment plan  are  indeed  universal,  yet  it  is  so 
only  to  those  persons  who  accept  the  stipula- 
tions that  accompany  it;  both  of  which  the- 
ories have  powerfully  dominated  portions  of 
the  church.  But  how  much  more  simple  and 
Scriptural  is  the  theory  herein  advanced — 
namely,  that,  as  a  scheme^  Christ's  death  is  of 
no  avail  at  all  to  any  one,  but  when  the  pres- 
ent, immanent  Christ,  as  a  Spirit,  exercises 
His  personal  influence  upon  the  life  of  any 
man,  that  influence  saves  him  because  of  its 
character  as  shown  forth  in  Christ's  death. 
In  other  words,  the  crucifixion,  as  was  said 
before,  is  but  a  part  of  the  atonement;  as  a 
whole,  the  atonement  includes  Jesus'  life, 
death,  and  present  personal  influence. 

At  last  we  see  how  it  is  "in  Christ,"  or 
**for  Christ's  sake,"  that  He  forgives.  To 
the  Jew  of  old  the  sacrifice  of  the  lamb  stood 
for  God's  forgiveness  only  because  the  law  of 
God  so  stated;  he  could  only  guess  at  the 
intent  of  the  ordinance.      Let  us  not,  then, 


THE   RELIGION   OF  TO-MORROW 

be  mere  ancient  Jews,  believing  that  God  for 
some  reason  pardons  us  because  of  the  per- 
fect Lamb's  death,  but  let  us  grasp  tht  purpose 
of  the  death,  the  blessed  argument  it  con- 
tains, as  thus  set  forth  by  Paul:  "He  that 
spared  not  His  own  Son  [spared  not  Himself], 
but  delivered  Him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  He 
not  with  Him  also  freely  give  us  all  things?"  * 
Truly,  in  this  act  "God  commendeth  His  love 
to  us."  We  do  not  believe  He  forgives  us 
simply  because  He  promised  to,  and  we  are 
not  simply  "resting  on  the  promises";  but 
because,  if  He  is  the  kind  of  person  who  on  the 
cross  cried  out,  "Father,  forgive  them;  they 
know  not  what  they  do,"  then  that  kind  of  a 
God  would  certainly  receive  and  welcome  a 
penitent  sinner. 

The  value  of  the  atonement,  therefore,  is 
the  revelation  of  the  character  of  God  and  of  His 
disposition  toward  men.  No  longer  must  He 
be  supposed  a  far-removed  Conservator  of 
the  world,  a  distant  Deity  dwelling  in  unap- 
proachable light;  but  He  bends.  He  comes 
near.  He  enters  into  our  affairs,  incorporates 
His  personality  into  our  flesh  and  blood.  Our 
great  struggles  with  sin  and  circumstance. 
He  is  not  indifferent  to  them.  He  makes 
them  his  own.  Into  the  thick  of  men  sighing 
for    deliverance    he    plunges,    and    Himself 

*  Rom.  viii.  32. 

212 


THE   LIGHT   FROM   THE    CROSS 

assists  them  "with  groanings  that  cannot  be 
uttered."  Their  battle  is  His  battle;  their 
hope  His  hope.  He  will  expose  the  black- 
ness of  sin  as  it  was  never  seen  before.  The 
horrors  of  distorted  human  passions,  He  goes 
to  meet.  He  is  dragged  from  prison  to  court, 
smitten,  beaten,  spit  upon.  He  gave  His 
back  to  the  smiter  and  His  cheek  to  them 
that  pluck  out  the  beard.  Smirched,  be- 
grimed with  filthy  hands,  with  welts  on  His 
back  where  the  scourge  fell,  His  face  red  and 
His  eyes  near  blinded  by  the  blood  trickling 
from  the  mock  crown.  He  stumbles  on  out  of 
the  gate,  an  accursed  Being,  at  last  to  be 
raised  in  a  triumph  of  all  that  is  devilish  and 
malignant  upon  a  racking  cross,  to  die  with  a 
shriek  of  utter  torture  wrung  from  His  dry 
lips  when  burst  His  mighty  heart.  Well 
might  Isaiah,  as  this  scene  passes  before  his 
prophetic  eye,  exclaim: 

"And  it  shall  be  said  in  that  day: 
Lo,  this  is  ottr  God: 

We  have  waited  for  Him,  and  He  will  save  us. 
For  He  said,  Surely  they  are  My  people. 
My  children; 
So  He  was  their  Saviour. 
In  all  their  affliction  He  was  afflicted; 
In  His  love  and  in  His  pity  He  redeemed  them; 
And  He  bare  them,  and  carried  them. 
Doubtless  Thou  art  our  Father, 
Though  Abraham  be  ignorant  of  us  and  Israel  ac- 
knowledge us  not; 
Thou,  O  Lord,  art  our  Father,  our  Redeemer: 
Thy  name  is  from  everlasting."^ 

*  Isa.  XXV.  9. 

213 


SUGGESTIONS 

The  atonement  is  not  a  syllogism,  as  the  old  the- 
ology made  it;  nor  a  theatric  example,  as  the  new 
theology  makes  it;  but  it  is  a  revelation,  as  the  future 
theology  will  make  it. 

The  value  of  the  atonement  is  that  it  characterizes 
God. 

God  gave  His  revelation  in  Oriental  imagery,  not 
in  Latin  dogma. 

It  is  the  subtle  tincture  of  Arianism  that  has  de- 
formed the  atonement. 

The  force  in  salvation  is  self-giving. 

In  Christ's  sufferings  the  idea  of  God's  holiness  is 
suffused  with  sympathy. 

God  is  His  own  sacrificial  Lamb  and  His  own 
Priest. 

Men  always  believed  in  perfect  holiness,  but,  until 
Christ,  they  never  thought  it  could  stoop  to  help  the 
lowest. 

God  is  not  a  spirit  of  segregation  but  of  assimila- 
tion. 

The  passing  of  sin  without  the  entrance  of  God  is 
purely  an  intellectual  fiction. 

Forgiveness  is  also  subjective. 

The  new  consciousness  is  the  basis  of  the  new  con- 
fidence. 

The  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost  is  fatal,  because  it  is 
the  sin  against  the  only  form  in  which  God  touches  us. 

The  law  showed  God's  height;  the  cross,  His  depth; 
the  resurrection,  His  breadth;  these  are  the  three  di- 
mensions. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE    BALANCE    OF   DOCTRINE 

To  View  Religion  as  God's  Personal  Influence  Gives 
Coherency  to  Conflicting  Doctrines,  to  Contra- 
dictory Passages  of  Scripture,  and  to  Opposing 
Elements  in  Human  Nature 


"  Health  is  the  vital  principle  of  bliss."— Thomson, 
Castle  of  Indolence,  c.  ii.,  s.  55. 

"  Morality,  when  vigorously  alive,  sees  farther  than 
intellect,  and  provides  unconsciously  for  intellectual 
difficulties."— Froude,  Dims  Ccesar. 

"While  adverse  criticism  has  from  age  to  age  gone 
on  destroying  particular  theological  dogmas,  it  has 
not  destroyed  the  fundamental  conception  underlying 
these  dogmas.  It  leaves  us  without  any  solution  of 
the  striking  circumstance,  that  when,  from  the  absurd- 
ities and  corruptions  accumulated  around  them,  na- 
tional creeds  have  fallen  into  general  discredit,  ending 
in  indifferentism  or  positive  denial,  there  has  always 
arisen  by  and  by  a  reassertion  of  them;  if  not  the 
same  in  form,  still  the  same  in  essence.  Thus  the 
universality  of  religious  ideas,  their  independent  evo- 
lution among  various  primitive  races,  and  their  great 
vitality,  unite  in  showing  that  their  source  must  be 
deep-seated  instead  of  superficial." — Spencer,  Fi7'st 
Principles,  p.  il. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

There  has  been  a  tedious  war  waged  over 
the  matter  of  dogma.  For  a  long  time  in  the 
history  of  Christianity  it  was  thought  to  be 
the  chief,  if  not  the  essential,  thing  in  religion, 
and  the  church  exercised  all  her  authority  and 
arrayed  all  her  learning  and  zeal  to  the  end 
that  the  people  might  know  what  doctrines 
contained  the  truth  and  what  were  false. 
Then  came  the  reaction.  At  present  we  are 
swinging  to  the  other  extreme,  and  it  is  the 
fashion  to  say  that  a  right  creed  is  not,  after 
all,  the  most  vital  element  in  religion.  The 
more  accurate  thinkers  have  perceived  that, 
while  correct  dogma  is  not  so  all-availing  as  it 
was  once  held  to  be,  yet  the  form  of  our  belief 
has  a  certain  necessary  relation  to  our  char- 
acter and  conduct.  "As  a  man  thinketh,  so 
is  he." 

Many  have  been  puzzled  to  understand  how, 
if  we  admit  right  creed  to  be  essential,  we  can 
escape  going  on  to  the  full  logical  conclusion 
that  dogma  should  be  the  prime  concern  of 
religious  institutions  charged  with  the  propa- 
gation of  Christ's  teaching.  The  unloosing 
217 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

of  this  mystery  is  accomplished  by  the  the- 
ory here  presented,  that  religion  is  the  per- 
sonal influence  of  God.  It  is  the  dimly 
growing  consciousness  of  this  truth  that  has 
led  us  away  from  emphasizing  dogmatic 
instruction.  It  is  the  conviction  of  this 
truth,  now  in  the  air  of  our  modern  spiritual 
life,  that  relieves  the  stern  prominence  of  the 
credal  tests  of  former  times.  We  feel  that 
while  truth  is  absolutely  necessary,  yet  some- 
how dogma  is  not  all  truth;  but  we  have  not 
yet  formulated  a  statement  of  what  is  truth. 
There  must  be  some  qualification  to  the  state- 
ment that  belief  is  fatal;  but  we  have  failed 
to  set  forth  distinctly  what  that  qualification 
is.  There  must,  then,  be  given  some  the- 
orem concerning  dogma,  which  shall  limit  its 
iron  essentiality,  at  the  same  time  conserving 
its  utility.     Such  a  theorem  is  this: 

That  doctrines  of  religion  are  true  only  in 
so  far  as  they  are  indications  of  the  character 
and  work  of  the  personality  of  God. 

Doctrines  are  finite  enclosures  of  thought. 
A  personality  is  an  abysmal  thing.  A  doc- 
trine, therefore,  may  be  true,  but  can  be  but 
partly  true;  because  no  finite  definition  can 
include  an  infinite  object.  There  abides  in 
every  true  doctrine  something  that  is  not  true 
at  all.  What  that  untrue  part  is,  can  be  de- 
termined only  by  the  test  of  the  personality. 
218 


THE   BALANCE    OF   DOCTRINE 

A  system  of  religion,  consequently,  that  is 
based  upon  certain  dogmatic  statements  must 
always  contain  much  that  is  erroneous.  It  is 
only  a  faith  that  is  founded  upon  a  person- 
ality that  can  be  forever  true;  for  it  will  have 
within  itself  the  touchstone  by  which  the  truth 
can  ever  be  distinguished  from  error  in  any 
credal  statement;  it  will  have  a  constant 
power  to  modify  and  remodify,  to  alter  and 
adapt  its  creed  to  its  growing  apprehension 
of  the  true  nature  of  the  personality  upon 
which  the  faith  hangs;  and  it  will  be  able  to 
do  this  without  stultifying  itself,  it  will  be 
able  confidently  to  repose  in  a  statement  of 
truth,  even  knowing  that  statement  to  be 
partly  untrue,  because  it  feels  that,  with  a 
fuller  knowledge  of  the  divine  Person,  the 
untrue  will  be  corrected  and  the  true  estab- 
lished. 

Such  is  the  real  nature  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion. It  is  centered  upon  God's  personality; 
and  yet  it  is  rich  in  helpful  doctrines,  those 
doctrines  not  being  considered  the  ultimate 
deposits  of  truth,  but  as  marks  by  which  the 
intellect  approaches  toward  and  apprehends 
the  main  and  actual  truth,  which  is  God's 
person  alone. 

If  we  now  will  apply  the  test  of  personality 
to  some  of  the  old  theological  controversies, 
we  will  find  that  it  strangely  and  lucidly 
319 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

resolves  the  difficulties,  and  mightily  comforts 
the  intellect  in  its  effort  to  grasp  religious 
thought.  **Truth,"  said  a  certain  popular 
lecturer,  **is  clean  cut."  There  never  was  a 
greater  mistake.  Lies  and  half-truths  are 
clean  cut;  but  in  truth  is  always  a  fading 
point  of  mystery,  a  dim  and  shadowy  perspec- 
tive of  infinitude.  For  there  is  but  one  abso- 
lute truth:  God,  who  is  infinite;  and  any 
clearly  defined  fragmental  fact  that  seems 
true  is  only  true  when  taken  in  connection 
with  all  the  rest  of  the  body  of  truth.  In 
other  words,  there  are  no  fragmental  truths; 
there  is  but  The  Truth.  The  bearings  and 
relations  and  interdependencies  of  each 
separate  truth  are  as  much  a  part  of  it  as  the 
stated  and  visible  part.  The  little  grain  of 
sand  you  may  hold  on  your  finger-nail  has 
threads  of  relation  running  out  to  the  remot- 
est star;  it  is  bound  by  gravitation  and  other 
influences  to  all  nature;  and  hence  you  can- 
not say  you  really  know  that  sand  grain  until 
you  know  the  vast  All  of  the  universe. 

Let  us,  then,  apply  God's  personality  to  a 
few  mooted  doctrinal  contradictions,  and  we 
will  see: 

That  the  personality  of  God  is  the  balance  of 
doctrine. 

For  instance,  God  is  just.  That  is  true. 
Yet  it  is  but  a  portion  of  truth.  Carry  it  to 
220 


THE   BALANCE   OF   DOCTRINE 

the  extreme  length  of  the  abstract  idea  of  jus- 
tice, leaving  behind  you  the  person  of  the 
One  who  is  just,  and  you  need  not  travel  far 
till  you  find  your  truth  a  falsehood.  For  the 
abstract  quality  of  justness  has  no  room  for 
mercy  or  forgiveness.  It  was  this  that  forced 
the  logic  of  Latin  theology  into  the  construc- 
tion of  the  "substitutional"  or  "govern- 
mental" theories  of  redemption.  The  the- 
ological logicians  could  not  see  how  absolute 
justice  could  forgive,  and  //  cannot  forgive; 
therefore  they  substituted  Christ  in  the  sin- 
ner's place  and  had  that  justice  vent  itself 
upon  Him.  Justice,  having  now  fully  ex- 
hausted itself  upon  Jesus,  Mercy  was  free  to 
come  in  and  pardon  the  guilty.  There  is  no 
trouble  with  the  logic  of  this  reasoning;  the 
error  is  in  the  premises.  For  God  is  not  Jus- 
tice. He  is  just.  The  human,  finite  idea  of 
justice  is  not  broad  enough  to  cover  His  per- 
son. There  is  a  vast  difference  between  our 
having  to  do  with  Justice  on  the  one  hand,  or 
with  a  just  Father  on  the  other. 

Take,  on  the  contrary,  the  statement  that 
God  is  merciful.  Grasping  this  thought,  and 
taking  it  away  from  God's  personality,  many 
have  concluded  that  God  will  not  punish  any 
one,  that  the  atonement  is  unnecessary,  and 
that  all,  saint  and  sinner,  repentant  and 
repenting,    alike,     will    be     freely    forgiven 

221 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

and  made  happy.  Here  is  precisely  the  same 
kind  of  error,  leading  to  a  directly  opposite 
result.  Both  are  wrong.  The  justice  of  God 
is  not  entirely  a  truth  by  itself,  neither  is  His 
mercy;  both  are  true  only  where  they  shade 
into,  coalesce  with,  and  eventually  modify 
each  the  other.  In  short,  all  antipodal  doc- 
trines about  God  must  be  balanced  by  His 
personality. 

So  of  foreknowledge  and  free-will.  Fore- 
knowledge is  certainly  true,  but  unless  it  be 
always  qualified  by  what  we  know  of  free-will 
it  is  not  true.  Led  to  its  logical  conclusion 
the  fore-knowledge  of  God,  as  an  abstract 
idea,  plunges  us  inevitably  into  fatalism  and 
irresponsibility,  rendering  us  automata.  In 
the  same  way  abstract  free-will  of  man  un- 
modified will  end  in  atheism.  Therefore,  we 
are  ever  to  keep  in  mind  that  these  are  mere 
indications  or  phenomena  of  the  two  great  infi- 
nite persofis,  God  and  man.  The  vanishing 
point  of  every  dogma  is  personality.  What 
that  is  we  can  never  fully  know,  any  more 
than  the  scientist  can  ever  know  what  is  life 
or  force.  The  great  fixed,  unalterable  fact 
of  religion,  absolutely  indisputable,  is  that 
God's  personality  influences  man's  person- 
ality. All  other  dogmas  concerning  God  or 
His  works  are  tentative,  to  be  held  only  as 
they  harmonize  with  this  dominant  truth. 


THE    BALANCE    OF   DOCTRINE 

If  it  be  objected  that  this  theory  is  indis- 
tinct and  not  "clean  cut,"  it  may  be  answered 
that /or  that  very  reason  it  is  more  liable  to  be 
true.  For  a  theory  that  does  not  frankly 
recognize  the  abyss  of  unknowable  truth  about 
religion  is  ipso  facto  false.  A  theological 
system  that  reduces  God's  nature  and  work 
to  a  series  of  propositions,  said  to  be  true 
absolutely,  and  not  only  in  connection  with 
His  personal  mystery,  is  theologic  material- 
ism. And  intellectually  considered,  the  old 
theology  was  materialistic.  The  same  fault 
lay  in  it  that  now  lies  in  the  modern  scientific 
dogmatism.  The  old  theology  pinned  its  faith 
to  certain  authoritative  statements  of  fact;  it 
refused  to  assent  to  new  facts,  not  because 
they  were  opposed  to  God  as  we  see  Him  in 
nature  and  revelation,  but  because  they  were 
prejudicial  to  their  stateme7its.  Some  of  our 
present-day  scientists  are  making  the  same 
mistake;  they  have  discovered  certain  facts 
in  nature  and  educed  from  them  certain  laws; 
and,  although  they  themselves  do  not  pre- 
tend to  have  discovered  all  the  facts  and  laws 
of  nature,  they  reject  religious  facts,  not 
because  they  are  not  fully  substantiated,  nor 
because  they  do  not  agree  with  established 
data  of  personal  phenomena,  but  because  they 
cannot  reconcile  them  to  their  set  of  facts. 
How  much  better  would  both  scientific  dog- 
223 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

matist  and  theologic  dogmatist  recognize  that 
*'vast  sea  of  nescience  upon  which  all  science 
floats  as  a  mere  superficial  film!"  How  much 
better  would  we  all  cling  to  the  deep  truth  of 
nature  and  of  God,  accepting  as  fragmentary- 
whatever  facts  we  can  discover,  and  rever- 
ently modifying  all  our  little  store  of  truth  as 
new  truth  comes  down  upon  us! 

The  personality  of  God  is  also  the  balance  of 
Scripture.  It  is  the  only  safeguard  against 
the  abnormalities  of  literalism.  The  Bible  is 
indeed  inspired;  but  it  is  not  a  collection  of 
Medo-Persian  decrees,  it  is  not  a  bundle  of 
separate  verses,  each  completely,  wholly,  and 
unqualifiedly  true.  The  Bible  is  not  the 
truth ;  the  truth  is  in  the  Bible.  We  are  to 
use  the  Scriptures  as  an  aid  to  discover  God 
and  to  learn  His  ways.  The  great  Book  is 
our  instructor  and  adviser,  but  it  is  of  no  use 
to  us  whatever  except  as  it  brings  us  in  touch 
with  the  Person  whose  revelation  it  is.  Every 
part  of  it,  therefore,  is  to  be  modified  by 
every  other  part.  No  verse  is  true  out  of  the 
Book.     The  whole  Book  itself  is  true. 

It  would  seem  that  the  authors  of  Holy 
Writ  were  careful  to  compose  their  writings 
so  that  literalism  would  be  an  impossibility, 
and  that  common  sense  would  forever  prohibit 
our  magnifying  a  particle  of  Scripture  into  an 
essential  thing.  For  their  favorite  method  is 
224 


THE    BALANCE    OF   DOCTRINE 

paradox.  They  abound  in  contradictions. 
They  continually  throw  the  inquiring  mind 
back  upon  the  idea  that  character^  before  con- 
duct, is  the  result  they  seek,  that  it  is  God, 
and  not  a  set  of  regulations,  they  are  unfold- 
ing. Take  for  instance  that  most  important 
of  all  inquiries,  "What  shall  I  do  to  be 
saved?"  Notice  how  Jesus  answers  this 
question  as  it  comes  to  Him  in  various  guises. 
He  has  no  one  essential  deed  for  all.  He 
does  not  tell  each  to  go  to  Mecca,  or  to  do 
this,  or  to  do  that  one  chief  saving  deed.  He 
has  a  different  word  each  time,  and  answers 
no  two  alike.  To  Nicodemus  He  says  that 
one  must  be  born  again;  to  the  rich  young 
man  He  counsels  selling  all  and  giving  the 
money  to  the  poor;  in  the  parable  of  the  last 
judgment  He  lays  all  His  stress  on  charitable- 
ness; to  the  disciples  He  enjoins  watchful- 
ness; speaking  of  prayer  He  makes  our  for- 
giveness to  turn  upon  the  forgiving  of  our  own 
enemies;  at  another  time  He  says  that  "he 
that  believeth  shall  be  saved";  and  of  the 
woman  who  anointed  Him  He  apparently 
accepts  the  deed  as  sufficient  merely  because 
she  "did  what  she  could."  One  who  is  look- 
ing to  see  what  may  be  the  saving  deed,  it 
seems  to  me,  must  retire  from  this  array  of 
conflicting  advice  utterly  baffled.  But  com- 
mon sense  rejoices  in  its  reasonable  conclu- 
225 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

sion  that  what  is  essential  is  not  any  one  deed 
at  all,  but  a  state  of  the  character  from  which 
all  these  various  deeds  naturally  spring.  Two 
things  are  in  all  of  these  cases  cited:  on  the 
one  hand  is  the  "Me"  of  the  Christ-God,  and 
on  the  other  hand  is  the  "me"  of  the  man's 
personality.  Viewing  Scripture,  therefore,  as 
the  revelation  of  that  personality  of  God 
which  contains  in  itself  the  harmonizing  and 
adjusting  element  of  all  contradictions,  given 
to  bring  the  influence  of  that  divine  person- 
ality to  bear  on  us,  we  see  the  whole  Book 
balanced  and  made  comprehensible. 

The  personality  of  God  is  also  the  balance 
of  character — that  is,  it  is  only  when  we  con- 
ceive religion  to  be  a  looking  away  from  self 
and  toward  the  Christ,  that  our  nature  devel- 
ops normally.  When  we  take  religion  to  be 
merely  a  rule  of  life,  a  collection  of  maxims, 
to  which  we  are  to  conform  ourselves,  we 
invariably  grow  one-sided.  The  religion  of  a 
personality  is  wholesome,  the  religion  of  a 
creed  is  morbid.  The  one  makes  sound 
growth  and  health,  the  other  sickness  and 
extravagant  vagaries.  Introspection  is  dan- 
gerous. The  habit  of  using  the  Bible  as  a 
model  and  striving  to  shape  our  lives  to  its 
teachings,  without  seeking  therein  the  spirit 
of  the  Book,  is  inimical  to  Christian  man- 
hood. For  it  is  God's  personal  influence,  not 
226 


THE    BALANCE    OF   DOCTRINE 

certain  facts  and  rules,  that  is  to  mold  us  into 
perfection.  And  the  Scriptures  are  to  be 
used  to  enable  us  to  bring  ourselves  under 
the  full  play  of  this  divine  Spirit. 

This  statement  of  the  matter  is  founded  in 
the  known  law  of  growth.  Growth  is  essen- 
tially unconscious.  "Consider  the  lilies,  how 
they  grow ;  they  toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin. ' ' 
There  is  no  effort  on  the  part  of  a  plant  to 
increase;  it  has  simply  to  present  itself  to  the 
agencies  of  nature,  to  wave  its  branches  in 
the  air  and  let  its  roots  into  the  soil,  and 
''God  giveth  the  increase."  Even  so  the 
Christian  is  to  use  Holy  Writ,  and  all  other 
good  words  and  advice,  as  helps  to  till  the  soil 
and  clear  away  the  weeds,  remembering  that 
it  is  the  divine  source  of  life  that  is  to  uplift 
and  ennoble  him. 

So  all  virtue  is,  in  its  best  form,  uncon- 
scious. The  charm  of  the  child  lies  in  the 
fact  that  it  does  not  realize  its  charm ;  and 
as  soon  as  a  little  one  comes  to  feel  its  cun- 
ningness,  it  becomes  affected  and  no  longer 
agreeable.  The  evasive  touch  of  perfect 
beauty  upon  a  lovely  face  is  the  unconscious- 
ness of  beauty.  Egotism  defiles  the  splendor 
of  intellectual  power.  Ostentation  spoils 
benevolence.  "Let  not  thy  left  hand  know 
what  thy  right  hand  doeth."  Pride  is  merely 
self-respect  degraded  by  self-consciousness. 
227 


THE    RELIGION   OF  TO-MORROW 

The  grace  of  manners  is  self-forgetfulness; 
without  this  quality  courtesy  is  affectation. 
Prudery  is  self-opinionated  chastity.  There- 
fore, the  fly  in  the  ointment  of  any  virtue  is 
self.  Now,  understanding  that  it  is  only  as 
we  look  away  from  self  to  God,  only  as  we 
think  of  Him,  only  as  we  lift  our  hearts  to 
Him  in  love,  only  as  we  receive  upon  our- 
selves the  reflexive  increment  of  holiness  by 
turning  to  Him,  we  are  saved  from  this  bane 
of  morbidness. 

The  mediaeval  monk  prayed  to  God,  but  he 
studied  himself.  The  anchorite  watched  his 
soul  to  see  it  grow,  and  chastened  it  with 
bodily  mortification,  dying  at  last  in  despair. 
The  Puritan  gloried  in  austerity,  and  the  more 
his  self-scrutiny  grew,  the  darker  became  his 
heart  and  the  more  rigid  his  practices.  The 
modern  sanctificationist  speaks  ever  of  his 
own  soul-states.  And  in  all  these  we  recog- 
nize something  sickly  and  unnatural.  The 
cause  of  it  is,  that  God's  Book,  God's  pre- 
cepts, or  our  own  experiences,  when  they 
become  the  object  of  supreme  attention,  nar- 
row and  dwarf  the  soul,  for  they  were  never 
meant  to  hide  Him  from  us,  but  to  reveal  Him 
to  us.  But  God  Himself,  in  Christ,  the  more 
He  is  sought  after,  rejoiced  in,  and  walked 
with,  forgetting  self,  changes  us  from  lower 
ever  to  higher  righteousness. 
228 


THE   BALANCE    OF   DOCTRINE 

Nothing  can  take  the  place  of  God's  own 
person  to  us.  The  worship  of  anything  else 
is  idolatry,  whether  that  adoration  be  of 
beasts  or  men  or  of  a  Book  or  a  law  He  has 
made.  But  beast,  man.  Book,  and  law  may 
help  us  if  through  them  we  find  Him.  The 
doctrine  that  can  save  religion  from  being 
abnormal,  gloomy,  wretched,  and  despairing, 
is  that  God  Himself,  in  the  person  of  the 
Christ-Spirit  is  now  immanent  among  men, 
and  does  transform  and  ennoble  all  who  receive 
Him,  all  who  look  not  at  any  created  thing, 
but  at  the  Creator  alone.  His  personal  influ- 
ence is  the  wholesomeness  of  faith.  '*Hope 
thou  in  God,  for  I  shall  yet  praise  Him  who  is 
the  health  of  my  countenance." 

The  same  irenic  influence  is  exerted  by  the 
theory  that  religion  is  the  play  of  God's  per- 
sonality upon  men,  on  the  age-long  dispute 
between  the  champions  of  original  sin  or 
total  depravity,  and  the  advocates  of  natural 
goodness.  The  former  take  their  stand  upon 
those  emphatic  statements  of  Scripture  which 
declare  that  there  is  no  good  thing  in  us,  that 
we  are  altogether  gone  astray,  that  the  natural 
man  cannot  please  God,  and  the  like.  These 
declarations  unquestionably  intimate  that 
man,  of  himself,  is  wholly  incapable  of  any 
such  reformation  as  shall  make  him  a  true 
son  of  God.  Opposed  to  this,  the  other  side 
229 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

says  that  unless  there  is  something  improvable 
in  us,  something  which  responds  to  the  divine 
appeal,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  take  hold  of 
religion  at  all.  Viewed  merely  as  abstract 
theories,  both  of  these  positions  are  perfectly 
true,  yet  are  they  perfectly  irreconcilable.  To 
obviate  the  difficulty  of  an  utterly  depraved 
man  being  of  course  incapable  of  admitting 
the  power  of  the  Gospel  to  save  him,  there 
has  been  suggested  what  is  called  "prevent- 
ing grace" — that  is,  that  a  certain  portion  of 
divine  goodness,  independent  of  and  outside 
of  the  Gospel,  abides  in  every  man,  not  very 
much  grace,  only  enough  to  make  him  desire 
to  turn  and  receive  the  Gospel,  enough  to 
make  him  conscious  that  he  is  a  sinner.  But 
how  much  more  simple  and  rational  is  the 
explanation  of  the  whole  matter  upon  the  the- 
ory that  it  is  the  personality  of  the  immanent 
God-Spirit  that  saves  men.  This  balances 
the  conflicting  views  and  gives  room  for  both 
in  one  conception.  Man  is  wholly  helpless 
to  become  like  God;  in  himself  is  no  spon- 
taneous regenerative  power.  The  only  force 
that  can  change  him  is  the  influence  of  God. 
That  influence  is  in  all  the  world;  it  operates 
everywhere,  in  heathendom  or  in  Christen- 
dom, in  proportion  as  it  is  perceived  and  sub- 
mitted to  by  men.  Among  pagans  it  works 
weakly,  because  obscured  and  clouded  by 
230 


THE   BALANCE    OF   DOCTRINE 

misconceptions  and  falsehood.  Among  peo- 
ple in  Christian  lands  it  is  effectual  as  it  is 
clearly  apprehended  and  yielded  to  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree.  In  the  true,  full 
preaching  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  it  is 
brought  to  bear  in  the  fullest,  truest  way, 
and  therefore  this  Gospel  is  "the  power  of 
God  unto  salvation."  What  we  call  natural 
goodness  is  the  more  or  less  feeble  radiation 
of  that  influence  upon  men,  the  penumbra  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Hence,  when  the  full  Gospel 
of  Christ  is  addressed  to  men,  it  is  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  same  power  that  has  already 
been  working  within  them  as  what  they  called 
''natural  goodness."  There  are,  therefore, 
not  two  kinds  of  goodness,  natural  and  super- 
natural;  it  is  all  one,  and  all  of  God.  He  is 
"the  Light  that  lighteth  every  man  that 
Cometh  into  the  world,"  but  in  Jesus  Christ 
He  is  the  very  "Sun  of  righteousness." 

A  religion  that  is  the  revelation  of  the  All- 
Father's  personality  and  His  influence  is 
equipped  to  be  a  missionary  power.  It  goes 
to  heathen  peoples,  not  as  another  cult,  but 
as  the  true  solution  of  all  they  have  had  that 
is  best.  It  recognizes  their  longings  and  reli- 
gious systems  as  so  many  indications  of  the 
divine  person's  influence  among  them,  ob- 
scured, degraded,  and  confused  by  error.  It 
comes  to  them,  using  as  a  text  their  own 
231 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

ancient  faiths,  saying  that  "God  who  at  sun- 
dry times  and  in  divers  manners  spake  in 
times  past"  to  them,  "hath  in  these  last  days 
spoken  by  His  Son,"  "the  brightness  of  His 
glory,  and  the  express  image  of  His  person." 
It  comes  to  them,  as  did  Paul  to  the  Atheni- 
ans, proclaiming,  "Whom,  therefore,  ye 
ignorantly  worship.  Him  declare  I  unto  you." 

Hence,  we  conclude  that  if  the  power  of  the 
Gospel  abides  only  in  the  doctrines  of  the 
Bible,  then  all  the  "outside  saints"  of  ante- 
Christian  ages  and  of  present  extra-Christian 
faiths  have  no  connection  at  all  with  salva- 
tion; Job  and  Abraham,  as  well  as  the  pious, 
sincere  Brahman  or  Mahometan  of  this  day, 
are  equally  aliens  from  the  kingdom;  but  if 
the  Gospel  is  the  complete  unfolding  of  God's 
personal  influence,  which  in  a  measure  always 
and  everywhere  has  been  at  work  among  men, 
then  the  ancient  patriarch  was  also  under  the 
power  of  the  Redeemer  of  men,  and  to  the 
earnest  heathen  we  can  say,  in  encouragement 
and  joy,  as  a  Gospel  which  is  a  "good  news" 
indeed,  "One  thing  thou  lackest  —  follow 
Christ;  receive  ye  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  He 
shall  lead  you  into  all  truth." 

It  thus  would  seem  that  the  doctrine  here 
defended  gives  an  intellectual  coherency  and 
symmetry  to  the  entire  Gospel  plan. 


232 


SUGGESTIONS 

Every  dogmatic  truth  contains  a  falsehood. 

There  is  no  religious  truth  but  personal  truth. 

All  science  is  to  be  modified  by  nescience. 

Religious  doctrines  are  true  as  revelations,  but  not 
as  definitions. 

No  finite  definition  can  include  an  infinite  object; 
it  must  be  indicatory,  not  exhaustive. 

A  system  of  religion  founded  upon  a  Person  can 
grow;  if  founded  upon  doctrine  it  will  die. 

Christian  doctrines  are  milestones  of  Christian 
progress. 

No  dogma  is  true  without  perspective;  it  must  rec- 
ognize the  unknowable. 

The  relations  of  a  fact  are  as  much  a  part  of  it  as 
is  the  stated  and  visible  part. 

The  personality  of  God  is  the  balance  of  doctrine. 

There  is  a  vast  difference  between  Justice  and  a 
just  God. 

Every  thesis  has  its  antithesis;  each  is  true  only 
where  it  overlaps  the  other. 

A  religion  of  dogma,  intellectually  speaking,  is 
materialistic. 

No  text  of  the  Bible  is  true  out  of  the  Bible 

The  contradictions  of  Scripture  are  the  safeguards 
of  common  sense. 

All  growth  is  unconscious  in  its  operation. 

The  world  is  in  the  penumbra  of  Christ. 

The  personal  influence  of  God  is  the  strength  of 
missions. 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE    INCARNATION 

The  Personal  Influence  of  God  is  Transforming  the 
World  as  a  Power  of  Social  Evolution,  not  as  a 
Rule  of  Social  Segregation 


"  Conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  born  of  the  Virgin 

Mary."— Z^^  Apostles'  Creed. 

*•  Divine  Wisdom,  to  establish  the  salvation  of  man- 
kind, and  to  conduct  His  glorious  victory  over  death 
and  sin,  would  do  it  no  other  way,  but  at  the  mercy  of 
our  ordinary  forms  of  justice,  subjecting  the  progress 
and  issue  of  so  high  and  so  salutiferous  effect  to  the 
blindness  and  injustice  of  our  customs  and  observ- 
ances; sacrificing  the  innocent  blood  of  so  many  of 
His  elect,  and  so  long  a  loss  of  so  many  years,  to  the 
maturing  of  this  inestimable  fruit."  —  Montaigne, 
Essays,  Vol.  I.,  p.  109. 

"For  still  the  new  transcends  the  old 
In  signs  and  tokens  manifold; 
Slaves  rise  up  men;  the  olive  waves 
With  roots  deep  set  in  battle  graves." 
John  G.  Whittier,  The  Chapel  of  the  Hermits. 

"And  ye  shall  hear  of  wars  and  rumors  of  wars: 
see  that  ye  be  not  troubled;  for  all  these  things  must 
come  to  pass,  but  the  end  is  not  yet." 

"Fear  not,  little  flock;  for  it  is  your  Father's  good 
pleasure  to  give  you  the  kingdom." — Jesus,  Matt. 
xxiv.  6;  Luke  xii.  32. 


CHAPTER   IX 

There  are  many  persons  who  may  hesitate 
to  believe  that  Christianity  is  the  personal 
influence  of  God,  because  it  appears  to  them 
that  if  it  were  so  religion  would  have  been 
always  pure,  while  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  has 
been  and  is  now  very  faulty.  And  not  only 
so,  but  so-called  Christianity  has  been  directly 
responsible  for  some  of  the  greatest  crimes  of 
history.  Not  alone  imperfect  has  it  shown 
itself,  but  positively  devilish  at  times.  Now, 
the  way  to  meet  this  statement  is  not  to  deny 
it,  for  it  is  true.  Some  time  ago  the  writer 
listened  to  a  brilliant  infidel  lecturer  as  he 
brought  against  the  church,  in  a  series  of 
telling  climaxes,  a  railing  accusation,  charg- 
ing it  with  impeding  progress  and  with  injur- 
ing humanity  in  a  hundred  ways.  What  he 
charged  was  every  whit  true;  its  falsity  lay 
not  in  his  misstatement  of  facts,  but  in  his 
wrong  point  of  view.  And  that  point  of  view 
unfortunately  was  not  his  own,  but  was  fur- 
nished him  by  the  theologians,  and  is  shared 
by  most  of  those  who  profess  Christianity. 
He  was  proceeding  upon  the  assumption  that 
237 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

it  was  the  design  of  this  religion  to  establish 
a  church,  saving  a  certain  elect  number  out 
of  the  world.  This  is  another  phase  of  the 
old  misconception  of  salvation  as  a  scheme 
instead  of  a  power;  it  shows  how  the  wrong 
notion,  which  this  essay  combats,  supplies  for 
infidelity  its  chief  if  not  its  only  ground  upon 
which  to  stand. 

But  Christianity  is  not  a  contrivance;  it  is 
God's  influence  through  Christ  among  men. 
Its  design  is  not  to  rescue  a  certain  chosen 
number  from  a  perishing  world,  but  to  change 
the  world.  "God  so  loved  the  world."  ^  "I 
am  the  light  of  the  world"  ^  Jesus  said,  He 
was  "to  save  the  world. "  ^  John  said,  "He  is 
the  propitiation,  not  for  our  sins  only,  but 
for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world."*  The  in- 
tent of  God  in  Christ  was  not  to  organize  a 
club  or  lodge  of  "perfect"  people,  which  by 
additions  to  its  membership  was  finally  to 
enroll  every  human  being  on  its  books.  His 
method  was  not  to  make  a  church,  as  one 
would  make  a  house  or  a  box,  or  make  an 
association  or  society,  but  to  grow  a  church. 
For  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  a  grain  of 
mustard  seed,  a  lump  of  leaven,  seed  growing 
secretly. **  His  purpose  was  a  development 
of  a  spirit  among  men,  a  renovation  of  their 

*  John  iii.  i6.  *  i  John  ii.  2. 

*  John  viii.  12,  etc.  •  Matt.  xiii. 

*  John  iii.  17. 

238 


THE   INCARNATION 

character  and   quality,   and    not  an  outward 
separation  of  some  men  from  all  others.     This 
being  true,  it  follows  that  the  church,  or  that 
body  of  men  representing  the  work  of  God, 
will  not  be  ideal  and  relatively  complete  until 
the  development  is  very  far  advanced.     In  its 
early  stages  it  will,  of  course,  be  very  incom- 
plete; it  will  be  a  prey  to  wrong  ideas;  it  will 
show  monstrous  mistakes;    it  will  be  full  of 
perversions  and  errors.     It  is  no  sign  it  is  not 
divine,    that    it    has    these    flaws;  it   is   truly 
divine  if  it  shows  it  has  inner  vitality  enough 
to  live  through  them,  to  cast  them  aside,  as 
the  seed  bursts  its  husk,  pushes  through  the 
soil,   and  proceeds  to  make   first  the  blade, 
then   the   ear,  then  the  full  corn  in  the  ear. 
Therefore,  as  a  holy  institution  the  church  is 
a  failure,  and  the  arguments  of  the  infidel  are 
correct.     Grant   him    his    premise,    and    you 
cannot   escape    his   conclusion.     But   as    the 
body  containing  a  Holy  Spirit  it  has  evidenced 
constantly  its  divine  origin  by  just  that  growth 
one  would  expect. 

Christianity  is  not  separate  from  humanity, 
but  is  incorporated  within  it.  Christianity  is 
human  just  as  much  as  it  is  divine.  If  it  was 
wholly  divine,  it  would  be  useless,  for  we 
could  never  be  touched  by  it;  and  it  would 
be  just  as  useless  if  wholly  human,  for  then 
there  would  be  nothing  in  it  to  lift  us.  It 
239 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

must  be  both  if  it  is  to  help  us.  It  must  be 
a  part  of  us,  and  in  consequence  it  must  grow 
with  our  growth,  partake  of  our  imperfections, 
and  be  subject  to  all  the  vicissitudes  necessary 
to  the  development  of  creatures  out  of  beast- 
liness and  narrowness  into  godliness  and 
grandeur.  The  influence  of  God  is  always 
utterly  pure  and  elevating,  but  men's  appre- 
hension and  practice  of  that  influence  will  be 
a  thing  of  progressive  stages.  All  life  is  an 
unfolding;  Christianity  is  a  life;  therefore 
Christianity  among  men  must  be  a  gradual 
widening  and  enlarging  of  them. 

It  is  because  we  do  not  appreciate  this  that 
we  stumble  over  those  instances  in  the  Old 
Testament  that,  while  represented  to  be  a 
part  of  God's  religion,  were  foreign  to  God's 
nature.  The  cruelties  and  inhumanities  there 
related  were  simply  illustrations  of  how  a  half- 
savage  community  worked  out  the  influence  of 
God  within  it.  Many  of  the  commands  and 
permissions  given  by  Moses  and  the  prophets 
seem  to  be  wrong,  but  were  relatively  right  ;^ 
though  they  now  appear  faulty  to  us  who  know 
God  in  Christ,  yet  they  were  ever  in  advance 
of  the  people.  If  they  had  been  always  and 
absolutely  right,  they  would  never  have  influ- 

'  As  Ex.  xxi.  21 ;  xxii.  i8,  etc.,  and  others  countenancing  slav- 
ery, polygamy,  slaughter,  the  killing  of  witches  and  the  like. 
"  And  Jesus  answered  and  said.  For  the  hardness  of  your  heart  he 
[Moses]  wrote  you  this  precept."    Mark  x.  5. 

240 


THE   INCARNATION 

enced  the  Jews  at  all,  but  would  have  simply- 
driven  them  to  despair,  because  it  would 
have  been  impossible  for  them  to  obey.  God 
is  leading  His  people  in  the  Old  Testament; 
and  the  shepherd  cannot  lead  his  flock  unless 
he  goes  on  just  before  them.  For  Him  to 
have  stood  in  the  far-off  gates  of  absolute 
right  and  from  thence  called  His  people, 
would  have  been  for  them  not  to  have  heard 
His  voice  at  all,  or,  hearing  it,  not  in  the 
remotest  degree  to  have  understood  it.  So 
in  law  and  psalm  and  prophecy  we  behold  the 
influence  of  Jehovah  working  as  leaven  among 
a  primitive  and  barbarous  people.  Con- 
templating the  Old  Scriptures  in  this  light, 
they  become  luminous  with  divinity,  and  we 
are  furnished  the  principle  by  which  to  dis- 
criminate between  the  divine  and  the  human 
in  the  Book.  Particularly  in  David  do  we 
see  a  rugged,  half-civilized,  kingly  man,  full 
of  gross  errors,  fleshly  and  impetuous,  yet 
permeated  by  a  divine  spirit  that  lifts  him, 
struggling,  weeping,  and  warring,  up  to  some 
of  the  loftiest  conceptions  of  Deity  the  mind 
of  man  has  ever  conceived.  As  an  angelic 
being,  David  is  a  caricature;  as  a  man  of 
God,  as  an  example  of  God  moving  upon  and 
raising  up  a  most  human  man,  he  is  a  splen- 
did example. 

Let  us,  therefore,  freely  admit  all  the  faults 
241 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

which  an  accusing  infidelity  lays  at  our  door. 
Let  us  not  boast  that  the  church  has  never 
acted  more  like  a  wild  beast  than  a  child  of 
God,  but  let  us  boast  that  it  has  had  within  it 
a  divine  power  to  shake  off  these  errors  and 
sins,  to  weep  for  them,  and  to  have  the  cour- 
age to  try  to  do  better.  The  proof  of  the 
church's  claim  to  be  of  God  is  not  its  impec- 
cability, but  its  progress. 

Let  us  glance  over  the  history  of  the  church. 
Rather,  let  us  see  how  the  influence  of  God 
has  fared  since  coming  upon  earth  in  the 
Christ.  Conceiving  Christianity  as  a  some- 
thing that  came  into  the  world  some  two 
thousand  years  ago,  that  persisted  through 
the  dark  ages,  that  reappeared  in  the  modern 
era  with  unfaded  strength,  and  that  to-day  is 
the  most  virile  influence  in  civilization,  we 
must  admit  that  it  is  not  only  a  divine,  but 
also  a  most  human  thing.  No  better  key  to 
our  correct  apprehension  of  its  career  could 
be  found  than  the  account  of  the  birth  of  its 
Founder.  Many  have  taken  offense  at  the 
alleged  parentage  of  Jesus.  Some  have 
allowed  its  mystery  to  thrust  them  into  doubt, 
some  have  treated  the  story  as  an  absurdity, 
and  still  others  have  made  it  an  occasion  for 
blasphemy.  But  that  His  Father  was  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  His  mother  was  the  woman 
Mary  is  in  the  most  philosophical  and  reason- 
242 


THE   INCARNATION 

able  accord  not  only  with  the  events  recorded 
in  His  earthly  life,  but  also  with  the  vacillat- 
ing history  of  His  church.  That  hypothesis 
is  the  most  reasonable  and  scientific  which 
accounts  most  nearly  for  all  the  phenomena. 
And  what  theory  of  the  origin  of  this  church 
is  so  satisfactory  and  agreeable  to  what  we 
know  of  its  fortunes  as  to  suppose  that  it  is 
half  human  and  half  divine?  If  you  were  to 
compose  a  story  in  which  the  hero  is  the  child 
of  a  fairy  father  and  a  wolf  mother,  you  would, 
if  you  were  a  skillful  artist,  depict  one  in  whom 
the  brutal  and  the  ethereal  traits  are  deftly 
intermingled.  Sometimes  his  face  would 
shine  with  an  evanescent  beauty  and  his  step 
would  be  too  light  to  crush  a  cowslip,  and 
again  he  would  be  fierce,  bloody,  and  repul- 
sive, and  not  infrequently  his  manner  would 
strangely  combine  suggestions  of  both  the 
fairy  and  the  beast.  Does  not  the  story  of 
the  church  in  some  such  way  demonstrate  its 
dual  origin? 

It  is  not  meant  that  Jesus  personally  evi- 
denced His  human  blood  by  imperfections, 
for  none  of  us  "accuseth  Him  of  sin."  In 
this  first  product  of  God  and  man  the  strong 
personality  of  God  so  completely  suffused  the 
grosser  nature  of  His  mother  that,  though  He 
was  in  all  points  like  as  we  are,  yet  was  He 
faultless.  He  was  "the  First-born  of  many 
243 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

brethren,"  and  as  such  the  perfect  type  of 
what  we  are  to  become  when  we  have  been 
changed  from  glory  to  glory  by  the  Spirit 
until  we  shall  be  like  Him.  In  His  person 
He  represents  humanity  as  it  shall  be  when 
it  is  one  with  God  "even  as  He  is  one  with 
the  Father";  that  combination  that  seems  so 
impossible,  yet  which  dwells  as  a  radiant  ideal 
ever  before  men;  thoroughly  human,  yet 
holy,  harmless,  undefiled.  In  Him  God  illus- 
trated what  His  personal  influence  can  do  for 
humanity. 

But  Christianity,  as  a  germ  planted  in  man- 
kind, did  not  leap  at  once  to  the  perfection  of 
this  God-man,  but  has  grown  painfully  and 
slowly,  exhibiting  at  once  the  power  of  its 
Father  and  the  frailty  of  its  mother.  Let  us 
consider  that  growth  in  its  infancy,  in  its 
youth,  and  in  its  manhood. 

And  first,  its  birth.  The  curse  pronounced 
upon  Eve  was  that  in  sorrow  she  should 
bring  forth  her  children.  And  not  only  do 
men  enter  life  through  the  gates  of  anguish, 
but  all  great  ideas  are  born  in  travail.  The 
great  creators  of  literature  were  men  who 
drank  deep  of  the  cup  of  agony:  blind  Homer, 
exiled  Dante,  imprisoned  Bunyan,  lonely  Mil- 
ton. Political  ideas  come  forth  in  revolution 
and  struggle;  democracy  has  been  baptized 
in  blood.  The  advent  of  any  great  world 
244 


THE   INCARNATION 

epoch  has  been  attended  with  fierce  convul- 
sions, mighty  pains.  And  thus,  also,  this 
religion,  destined  to  be  prolific  in  letters,  to 
revolutionize  theories  of  government,  to  work 
gigantic  reforms,  to  stimulate  the  human  brain 
by  the  sublimest  ideas  it  has  ever  entertained, 
was  ushered  into  being  amid  the  throes  of  a 
distracted  world.  The  birth  of  Jesus  was 
attended  by  the  slaughter  of  all  the  babes  of 
Bethlehem;  His  death  was  a  crucifixion. 
And  what  giant  passions  were  called  forth  by 
the  efforts  of  the  young  religion,  after  its 
Author's  death,  to  establish  itself  in  the 
hearts  of  men!  For  three  centuries  the  com- 
mon people  raged  in  riot  against  the  disciples 
of  Christ;  the  emperors  smote  them  again 
and  again  with  their  mailed  hand;  fire,  sword, 
and  wild  beast  were  turned  loose  upon  them; 
and  in  no  period  of  history  have  blacker, 
more  hideous  cruelties  and  more  terrible  suf- 
ferings been  displayed  than  during  this  time, 
the  days  of  the  entrance  of  Christianity  into 
mankind. 

Thus  did  Earth  bring  forth  her  Son,  thus 
found  this  Son  a  place  among  her  other  sons. 
For  she  has  other  children.  Confucianism, 
strange,  silent,  respectful,  with  a  stolid  face 
of  helpless  misery  and  a  mind  full  of  inven- 
tions, looking  ever  longingly  to  the  past; 
Egypt,  her  dead  boy,  once  strong  and  glori- 
245 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

ous,  now  buried  beneath  the  debris  of  history. 
Her  Roman  son  was  stern  and  vaunting,  seek- 
ing to  rule  all  his  brethren  with  a  rod  of  iron. 
Islam  was  her  child  Ishmael,  fierce,  fiery, 
iconoclastic.  To  each  in  turn  has  the  mother 
looked  for  succor,  but  each  left  her  in  despair, 
unable  to  heal  her  deep  misery.  It  is  this 
child,  Christianity,  this  child  at  whose  birth 
among  her  sheep  and  oxen  the  angels  rained 
down  their  hallelujahs;  this  child  toward 
whose  coming  the  prophets  strained  their 
eager  eyes;  this  child  which  she  called  Im- 
manuel,  God  with  us — it  is  this  child  to  whom 
she  stretches  out  her  arms  for  help. 

Passing  from  the  birth  to  the  infancy  of  the 
new  religion  which  embodied  the  influence  of 
God,  we  see  that  in  its  babyhood  it  was  like 
its  Father.  Infants  are  always  pure  and  sweet. 
Early  Christianity  was  almost  idyllic.  Even 
Gibbon  pays  respect  to  the  spotless  character 
of  the  early  church.  It  is  only  when  children 
grow  up  and  begin  to  absorb  their  environ- 
ment that  they  lose  their  artless  loveliness. 
Although  Christianity  was  a  child  of  God,  it 
was  left  in  the  hands  of  its  mother.  Earth.* 
It  soon  grew  like  her,  and  as  she  impressed 
herself  upon  it  the  infantine  beauty  gave  way 
to  the  lines  of  excess.     Christianity,   the  son 

*  The  reader  is  to  bear  always  in  mind  that  the  mother  means 
here  humanity  rather  than  the  Virgin  Mary  personally. 

246 


THE   INCARNATION 

of  the  world,  has  been  long  sowing  its  wild 
oats.  It  is  not  without  significant  connection 
with  our  present  thought  that  the  dominant 
church  exalted  Mary,  the  mother^  during  the 
period  of  the  church's  worst  deeds;  while 
since  the  standard  of  morality  has  risen,  since 
the  Reformation,  it  has  been  exalting  more 
and  more  the  personality  and  work  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  Father.  Had  Christianity 
not  been  corrupt,  it  would  not  have  been  the 
child  of  man;  had  it  not  ever  striven  against 
that  corruption,  it  would  not  have  been  the 
child  of  God. 

The  traces  of  its  human  parentage  are  all 
too  well  known.  It  became  cruel,  and  slew 
more  men  in  wars  against  heretics  than  Jew 
and  Roman  had  slain  in  their  persecutions. 
Wars  were  prosecuted,  and  armies  were  led  by 
popes,  the  vicars  of  the  Prince  of  Peace. 
Christianity  originated  the  Holy  Inquisition, 
the  most  consummate  engine  for  torture  ever 
devised  by  man  or  devil.  It  became  ambi- 
tious, grasping  after  the  prizes  of  earthly 
position,  greedy  to  reign.  Its  ministry  were 
vowed  to  celibacy  that  they  might  have  no 
family  ties  to  divide  their  loyalty  to  thechurch, 
and  thus  interfere  with  the  immense  design  of 
sweeping  all  thrones  and  kingdoms  into  its 
hand.  It  became  greedy.  In  every  land 
where  it  set  up  its  banner  it  accompanied  the 
247 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

preaching  of  individual  self-denial  with  cor- 
porate rapacity,  seizing  the  fattest  revenues 
and  choicest  lands  for  itself.  At  one  time 
the  church  owned  two-thirds  of  the  land  of 
western  Europe.  Watching  by  the  bedside 
of  the  dying,  it  mingled  in  its  ghostly  influ- 
ence the  pardon  of  sins  and  the  securing  of 
legacies.  It  trafficked  in  purgatory  and 
indulgences.  It  became  impure.  Prelates 
were  noted  for  their  licentiousness.  Condemn- 
ing the  marriage  of  priests,  it  winked  at  con- 
cubinage. It  was  its  mother  Earth's  own 
child — drunken,  lecherous,  idle,  earthy. 

It  became  proud.  Among  populations  of 
starving  paupers  it  raised  glittering  cathe- 
drals, imposing  piles  of  masonry  and  art, 
blessing  God  by  gold  and  marble  and  by 
weird  chantings  among  forests  of  stately  pil- 
lars, while  it  was  cursing  men  by  rack  and 
thumb-screw.  The  court  must  obey  the  cowl ; 
kings  must  receive  their  crowns  from  the 
head  of  the  church.  While  Jesus  rebuked  him 
who  called  Him  master,  bishops  and  arch- 
bishops proudly  resented  the  abatement  of 
one  jot  or  tittle  of  their  numerous  titles  and 
honors.  The  successor  of  Peter  the  fisher- 
man shone  in  gems,  wrapped  his  delicate 
limbs  in  purple  and  fine  linen,  and  excelled  the 
pomp  of  Oriental  monarchs. 

All  this,  and  more,  it  is  idle  to  deny.     It  is 
248 


THE   INCARNATION 

deeply,  shamefully  true.  When  the  infidel 
rehearses  these  things  he  is  but  telling  what 
we  frankly  and  fully  admit.  But  there  is 
more  he  does  not  say.  He  fails  to  note  that 
it  was  not  the  skeptic  nor  the  worldling  that 
rebuked  the  shamelessness  of  the  church, 
that  protested  against  its  abuses,  that  sealed 
his  testimony  against  its  evil  doings  by  his 
own  martyrdom.  It  was  not  the  philosopher 
nor  critic  nor  scientific  gentleman;  it  was  the 
Christian,  prayerful,  devout,  believing  God 
even  more  than  the  church  believed  Him, 
that  worked  its  reformation.  It  was  Savon- 
arola, Huss,  Farel,  Zwingli,  Luther,  Wick- 
lif,  and  Wesley,  and  not  Galileo,  Kepler, 
Kant,  Spinoza,  and  Spencer,  who  roused  the 
church  to  wash  its  bloody  hands  and  clean  its 
filthy  garments  before  the  Lord.  In  other 
words,  the  church  emerged  from  its  low 
estate  by  a  power  within  itself — evil  as  its 
ways  had  become — not  by  any  external  power. 
And  bad  as  this  mother's  child  was  in  the 
long  night  of  mediaevalism,  it  was  never  as  bad 
as  she.  With  all  its  colossal  faults,  it  was 
never  so  faulty  as  the  world  in  which  it  lay. 
Its  errors  stand  out  so  conspicuously  because 
we  know  its  Father.  It  was  cruel  in  an  age  of 
utter  cruelty,  barbarous  in  an  age  of  lowest 
barbarism,  unclean  in  an  age  of  absolute  filth, 
ignorant  in  an  age  of  blindness.  The  clergy 
249 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

even  in  those  days  were  as  a  whole  a  little 
better  than  the  men  of  the  world,  although 
they  should  have  been  much  better.  And  the 
church  was  never  at  any  time  during  those 
dark  days  without  evidences  of  its  divine  Sire. 
Did  not  indications  of  Him  flash  out  in  S. 
Bernard  and  Ambrose  of  Milan  and  Thomas 
a  Kempis?  And  were  they  not  to  be  seen  in 
the  spirit  that  erected  hospitals  and  universi- 
ties, in  the  real  charity  and  self-denial  that 
marked  the  early  days  of  the  brotherhoods 
of  S.  Francis  and  S.  Dominic?  Considered 
relatively,  the  Christianity  of  even  those 
gloomy  times  must  be  credited  with  an  ele- 
ment of  mercy,  hope,  democracy,  brother- 
hood, and  morality,  which  the  unprejudiced 
student  cannot  find  in  the  very  best  that 
heathenism  has  ever  done;  it  is  only  when  we 
consider  the  church  absolutely,  or  compare  it 
with  what  it  ought  to  have  been,  that  its  his- 
tory seems  so  iniquitous. 

Blood  will  tell.  Christianity  is  a  divine 
influence,  but  its  work  is  to  develop  human 
beings.  Earth  is  its  mother.  If  it  had 
always  been  holy,  it  would  not  be  our  child, 
but  a  foundling,  a  divine  waif,  which  would 
have  wandered  awhile  upon  earth  and  died  of 
homesickness.^     Its  ideals  stamp  it  as  heav- 

'  See  Buslinell's  '*  Salvation  by  Man,"  in  "  Christ  and  His  Sal- 
vation," p.  271. 

250 


THE   INCARNATION 

enly;  the  corruptions  incident  to  its  develop- 
ment stamp  it  as  earthly.  If  the  inspirations 
it  infuses  in  us  show  that  it  was  conceived  by 
the  Holy  Ghost,  the  flaws  in  its  practice  show 
that  it  is  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary.  Thus 
the  birth  at  Bethlehem  is  at  once  a  fact  and  a 
symbol.  Our  religion  is  child  of  sky  and 
cloud;  son  of  God  and  son  of  Mary;  very  God 
and  very  man. 

It  was  not,  perhaps,  without  divine  purpose 
that,  after  Christianity  had  been  engrafted  in 
the  race  and  its  literature  embodied  in  the 
perfect  and  delicate  language  of  the  Greeks, 
the  waves  of  barbarism  should  roll  over 
Europe  and  reduce  mankind  almost  to  a  state 
of  primitive  barbarism,  in  order  that  this 
new  influence  should  grow  up  through  the 
successive  periods  of  progress  and  make  a 
civilization  of  its  own,  a  civilization  grounded 
upon  its  own  ideas,  and  not  upon  those  of  the 
Greeks  or  Romans.  All  the  luxuriant  vege- 
tation of  Greece  and  Rome  was  plowed  under 
by  the  barbaric  hordes,  and  lay  long  in  the 
soil  wherein  this  new  "branch  of  God's  plant- 
ing" was  to  grow,  that  it  might  spring  from 
its  own  earth  and  unfold  with  the  unfolding 
of  men's  minds. 

Passing  now  from  the  youth  we  come  to  the 
manhood  of  this  child,  Christianity.  The 
pessimistic  opinions  about  our   day  are   un- 


THE   RELIGION    OF  TO-MORROW 

founded.  Our  alarm  is  based  upon  the  ob- 
servance of  the  decay  of  old  institutions,  the 
passing  of  old  forms  of  thought,  the  wearing 
away  of  old  vestments  of  belief;  we  do  not 
always  remember  that  new  wine  cannot  be  put 
in  old  wineskins.  The  world  to-day  has  a 
truer  conception  of  Christ  than  it  ever  had 
before;  this  new  conception  must  make  new 
institutions  as  garments  for  itself.  Why 
should  we  care  if  venerable  forms  decay,  if  so 
be  that  Christ  be  magnified?  '*Thou  fool! 
that  which  thou  sowest  is  not  quickened 
except  it  die."  Out  of  the  rotting  bulb 
springs  the  lily,  out  of  the  decomposed  acorn 
shoots  the  new  oak,  and  out  of  the  ferment 
of  these  times  the  personal  influence  of  God 
is  creating  in  us  still  truer  ideas  of  what  His 
religion  means.  The  nature  of  the  stronger 
parent  will  eventually  dominate  in  the  child. 
Slowly  but  surely  the  divine  Spirit  is  imprint- 
ing His  nature  upon  all  our  religious  ideas. 
To  be  sure,  the  church  is  still  stupid,  dull, 
irresponsive  to  its  high  calling,  but  more  and 
more  the  signs  of  its  Father  are  showing. 
The  trend  of  modern  Christian  thought,  senti- 
ment, and  practice  is  more  and  more  toward 
the  character  of  God.  Christ,  as  the  very 
Face  and  Word  of  God,  is  moving  upon  men, 
even  as  He  has  been  moving  to  raise  them  up 
from  savagery  to  intelligence. 


THE    INCARNATION 

He  told  us  that,  as  there  is  but  one  God, 
so  there  is  but  one  brotherhood.  All  men  are 
of  one  blood.  We  are  still  a  long  way  off 
from  realizing  the  meaning  and  implication  of 
this  fact  to  the  full,  but  how  much  already 
has  it  softened  our  asperities  and  broken  down 
the  divisions  among  us! 

We  owned  slaves.  Men  of  another  color 
we  bought  and  sold  as  cattle.  And  we  verily 
thought  we  did  right.  But  He  kept  whisper- 
ing in  our  ears,  "They  are  brothers,  brothers, 
brothers!"  We  grew  uneasy.  We  had  no 
rest  because  He  would  not  let  us  forget  the 
black  men  were  brothers.  By  and  by  we  burst 
forth,  "If  they  be  brothers,  let  them  rise  and 
stand  up  equal  with  us!"  War  followed.  The 
nation  was  like  to  be  rent  and  ruined.  War 
passed.  The  clouds  blew  off  on  the  winds  of 
peace.  He  smiled  and  said,  "You  did  clum- 
sily, but  well ;  you  have  set  free  your  brothers. " 

Little  children  worked  in  mines  and  fac- 
tories until  their  ghosts  peeped  out  through 
their  gaunt  bodies.  He  showed  us  them,  and 
put  His  hand  on  them,  and  said,  "Why  have 
you  cursed  them  when  I  have  blessed  them?" 
So  we  set  the  children  free  from  stunting 
labor.  We  built  schoolhouses  for  them.  We 
took  the  millions  of  money  before  spent  in 
war  and  gave  it  to  train  and  teach  the  little 
ones. 

253 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

Woman  was  but  a  more  excellent  beast. 
He  gave  us  no  rest  until  we  released  her  from 
the  harem  and  unyoked  her  from  among  the 
oxen  and  took  her  hand  and  raised  her  to  the 
throne  of  love.  We  were  shamed  from  our 
lives  of  license  and  uncleanliness,  because  He 
said  to  us,  "They  twain  shall  be  one  flesh." 
So  we  built  woman  a  temple  and  called  it 
"Home."  We  rescued  love  from  beastliness 
and  linked  it  with  loyalty.  And  all  because 
He  would  have  it  so. 

We  had  a  system  of  political  economy  which 
said,  "Labor  is  also  a  commodity;  it  is  to  be 
bought  cheap  and  sold  dear,  even  as  corn;  it 
also  is  under  the  law  of  demand  and  supply." 

But  this  displeased  Him.  "How  can  the 
laborer  be  a  brother  and  a  thing  at  the  same 
time?"  He  asked.  Then  we  awoke,  we  are 
now  awakening,  to  protest  that  labor  is  not  a 
tool  of  capital,  but  the  partner  of  capital  and 
its  co-worker.  The  old  system  of  competition 
and  individualism,  that  worked  measurably 
well  when  the  laborer  owned  his  own  tools,  we 
endeavored  to  carry  over  into  a  social  state 
where  capital  owned  all  the  tools  and  the 
laborer  had  nothing  to  bring  to  market  but 
his  hands.  Then  there  was  great  evil;  for 
the  workman  was  again  reduced  to  a  slave, 
and  his  price  was  his  wage.  So  He  gave  us 
no  rest  until  we  cut  the  laborer's  hours  from 
254 


THE   INCARNATION 

twelve  to  eleven,  from  eleven  to  ten,  from  ten 
to  eight,  so  that  he  should  have  some  time  to 
make  manhood  as  well  as  wages. 

We  gloried  in  war.  Militarism  like  a 
deathly  pest  infected  our  literature,  our  imagi- 
nation, our  legislation,  our  whole  life.  Then 
He  said  again,  ''Brothers!  brothers!"  And 
we  could  but  think,  "If  brothers,  why  war- 
riors?" So  He  took  the  spear  and  showed  us 
how  to  make  it  a  pruning-hook,  and  the  sword 
how  to  make  it  a  plowshare.  Gradually, 
gently,  He  led  us  on.  At  first  private  wars 
gave  way  to  courts;  then  came  partial  spots 
of  peace  called  "the  king's  peace,"  and 
**God's  peace";  at  length,  when  He  had  got 
the  ear  of  the  two  foremost  nations  of  earth, 
He  said,  "If  two  men  go  to  court,  why  not 
two  nations?"  So  began  international  arbi- 
tration. Whereat  we  prospered,  for  He  was 
pleased  with  us. 

He  chose  the  lowly  among  us,  and  we  were 
amazed,  for  we  thought  some  men  better  than 
others.  We  had  aristocracies  and  plutocracies, 
we  had  bespangled  courts  and  nobilities.  But 
He  kept  saying,  "Brothers,  brothers!"  And 
because  He  gave  us  no  respite  we  put  aside 
monarchies  and  titles,  and  we  sentenced  the 
idea  of  privileged  classes  to  death.  We  put 
the  ballot  in  the  hand  of  even  the  hod-carriers, 
because  He  insisted  that  we  are  brothers. 
255 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

Then  there  was  much  confusion  and  corrup- 
tion, and  some  wise  men  said  democracy  is  a 
failure.  But  He  bids  us  wait  patiently  until 
it  works  out  a  nobler  manhood. 

Criminals  we  had.  We  punished  them. 
We  killed  them.  We  called  them  enemies  of 
the  social  order.  But  He  still  would  say, 
"Brothers!  brothers!"  So  we  ceased  first  to 
mutilate  and  torture  them.  Then  we  left  off 
to  a  great  extent  murdering  them.  We  are 
now  beginning  to  question  if  it  is  right  to 
punish  them.  It  is  God's  business  to  punish. 
So,  therefore,  we  are  trying  to  help  even  the 
criminals,  because  He  calls  them  our  brothers. 
We  build  reformatories,  establish  indeter- 
minate sentences,  and  seek  in  many  ways  to 
cure  and  not  exterminate  the  criminal.  Ever 
because  He  says  to  us,  "Cure,  heal,  help;  do 
not  avenge,  punish,  destroy." 

In  view  of  all  this  why  should  we  clutch  at 
the  decaying  forms  while  the  life  is  so  full 
about  us?  Let  the  dead  past  go.  The  future 
is  full  of  hope.  The  light  of  life  is  breaking 
upon  the  earth. 

"  Ring  out,  wild  bells,  to  the  wild  sky! 
Ring  out  the  old,  ring  in  the  new; 
Ring,  happy  bells,  across  the  snow; 
Ring  in  the  Christ  that  is  to  be!  " 

There  is  much   uneasiness  in  religion  just 
now.     It  seems   to  be  an  age  of  theological 
256 


THE   INCARNATION 

unsettling.     But  while  some  may  view  all  this 
with  alarm,  it  would  seem  that  the  true  view 
is  not  to  consider  progress  as  doing  away  with 
religion,   but  religion   as  doing  away  by  its 
progress,  with  forms  no  longer  suited  to  its 
growth.      The     present    pangs     are    merely 
"growing  pains."     The  religion  of  Jesus  is 
not  a  set  form;  it  is  a  principle   of  human 
development.     As  it  masters  one  age  it  forms 
a  certain  body  or  shell  for  itself  out  of  the 
current  notions  of  that  age.     Perfectly  true 
and  pure  in  itself,  yet  it  must  get  such  imper- 
fect shape  as  the  imperfectly  formed  ideas  of 
that  age  may  furnish,   having,  as  Paul  says, 
"this  treasure  in  an  earthen  vessel."     By  and 
by,  when  it  has  grown  and  lifted  men  up  into 
another  plane  of  thought,  coming  into  a  larger 
age,    the  old   shell    becomes   too    narrow,    it 
cramps  its  contents,  the  form  that  formerly 
protected  its  growth  now  hinders  its  growth. 
Then,  like  the  chick  in  its  shell,  it  picks  and 
picks  until  it  comes  out  into  the  fuller  life 
for  which   it  is  prepared.      That   picking  is 
what  we  call  doubt.     All  advance  in  thought- 
life  begins  in  skepticism.     Not  the  irreverent 
sort    which    revolts    at    religion    because    it 
forbids  sin,  but  the   reverent  sort   that  longs 
for  a   deeper,    truer   word    for    the   growing 
idea.     This  is  what  Tennyson  meant  when  he 
wrote: 

257 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

"There  lives  more  faith  in  honest  doubt, 
Believe  me,  than  in  half  the  creeds." 

The  revelation  of  God  must  be  reasonable, 
fitting  the  instincts  of  natural  religion,  sup- 
plementing by  its  full  light  that  "light  which 
lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the 
world."  And  it  is  reasonable;  the  harsh  and 
repugnant,  the  mechanical  and  absurd  appur- 
tenances to  theology  were  not  at  all  in  the 
early  Christianity  of  the  days  of  the  Greek 
theologians,  but  were  grafted  upon  our  reli- 
gion during  the  dark  ages  of  scholasticism.^ 
In  our  days  we  are  simply  shaking  off  the 
incubus  of  Latin  thought  and  getting  back  to 
the  simplicity  of  Christ  and  the  earlier  fathers 
of  the  church. 

Christianity  is  now  apparently  torn  and 
divided  in  its  theology  simply  because  we  are 
living  in  an  age  of  liberty.  But  in  ail  this 
diversity  and  conflict  we  are  vastly  nearer  the 
truth  than  in  the  days  of  apparent  uniformity. 
For  our  religion  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  grow 
in  an  atmosphere  of  freest  discussion  and 
untrammeled  doubt  and  unhindered  opposi- 
tion. It  dwindles  and  pines  under  the  shadow 
of  any  sort  of  authority  or  human  protection. 

'  "For  a  thousand  years  those  who  came  after  him  [Augus- 
tine] did  little  more  than  reaffirm  his  teaching,  and  so  deep  is  the 
hold  which  his  long  supremacy  has  left  upon  the  church,  that  his 
opinions  have  become  identified  with  divine  revelation,  and  are 
all  that  the  majority  of  the  Christian  world  yet  know  of  the  reli- 
gion of  Christ."— "Continuity  of  Christian  Thought,"  p.  270. 

258 


THE   INCARNATION 

The  widest  variety  of  opinion  is  necessary. 
For  all  warring  opinions  must  prove  their  truth 
each  by  striving  to  help  men  most,  by  excel- 
ling in  benevolence  and  good-will  and  all  the 
tender  humanities  Christ  gave  as  the  test  of 
real  truth.  There  is  more  of  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  among  men  now  than  in  any  era  in  his- 
tory. Men  may  hiss  the  church,  and  it  hurts; 
but  what  of  it,  if  they  reverence  still  the 
Christ,  and  scorn  the  church  only  because  it 
is  not  like  Him?  More  and  more  all  men  are 
turning  to  the  Master  for  the  solution  of  the 
problems  of  life  and  death.  Sociology  and 
politics  and  every  reform  are  quoting  Him 
more  and  more,  each  party  shaming  the  other 
because  it  fails  to  measure  up  to  His  ideals. 
We  cannot  gauge  the  influence  of  Jesus  by 
arithmetic.  In  public  opinion,  in  the  trend 
of  reforms,  in  the  undertone  of  literature,  in 
the  quietly  accepted  rules  of  social  life,  I  find 
more  of  our  Master. 

"God  's  in  His  heaven; 
All 's  right  with  the  world!  " 

There  is  not  the  wide  gap  between  the 
church  and  the  world  there  was  in  apostolic 
days.  The  church  is  not  as  pure  now  as 
then;  this  is  often  charged.  But  we  are  apt 
to  forget  that  while  the  church  as  such  may 
not  be  so  near  His  ideal,  the  outlying  world 
259 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

is  much  nearer,  and  Christ  came  to  save  the 
world.  No  man  with  good  judgment  can  deny 
that  with  all  its  evil,  the  present  age  is  much 
nearer  the  ideas  of  Jesus  than  the  age  of 
Augustus.  Therefore,  facing  Him,  let  the 
church  say,  "He  must  increase,  but  I  must 
decrease."  It  may  be  that  the  church  is  to 
be  cast  aside  for  its  refusal  to  go  on  according 
to  God's  plan;  we  cannot  tell.  Or  it  may 
rather  be,  and  this  is  our  prayer  and  hope, 
that  it  will  rise  renewed,  grasping  the  full 
meaning  of  its  opportunity,  and  in  the  century 
to  come  still  make  good  its  claim  to  be  the 
body  of  Christ. 

Certain  it  is  that  unless  we  rise  to  a  higher 
conception  of  God's  work,  to  truer  ideas  of 
what  salvation  and  eternal  life  and  the  resur- 
rection mean,  we  cannot  long  linger  in  this 
age.  We  cannot  continue  as  an  anachronism. 
We  must  shake  off  the  bands  and  swaddling 
clothes  of  Latin  theology  and  return  to  the 
simplicity  of  Christ.  And  there  are  many 
signs  that  the  church  is  doing  this.  In  the 
wide  liberty  of  discussion  we  are  developing 
an  orthodoxy  of  spirit.  In  the  extreme 
diversity  of  sects  we  are  laying  the  foundation 
of  the  true  oneness  of  Christ,  which  is  not 
uniformity  of  opinion  or  ritual,  but  "the  unity 
of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace,"  while 
unity  of  organization  is  a  bond  of  contention. 
260 


THE   INCARNATION 

There  is  no  true  unity  which  is  not  made  up 
of  variety,  else  the  parts  will  not  fit  together. 
It  may  be  but  a  fond  and  foolish  dream,  but 
the  vision  will  rise  before  his  eyes  who  sees  in 
every  church  some  measure  of  the  Spirit,  vary- 
ing according  to  the  different  dispositions  of 
men,  the  vision  of  the  one  universal  church 
of  Christ  on  earth,  formed  not  by  law  nor  by 
authority,  but  by  the  common  consent  and 
desire  of  the  common  sense  of  a  race  fully 
emancipated  into  the  liberty  of  Christ  Jesus, 
in  which  church  all  churches  shall  have  a 
share,  each  shall  lay  a  stone  or  frame  a  soft- 
shining  window;  in  which  church  there  shall 
be  a  ritual  of  service  according  to  the  Roman 
form,  preserving  the  Latin  tongue  for  its 
sonorous  beauty  (it  being  no  more  an  "un- 
known tongue"  when  all  know  or  may  know 
what  it  means),  and  the  Anglican  public  pray- 
ers, and  the  Methodist  enthusiasm,  and  the 
glow  and  spirituality  of  all  the  quietistic 
sects,  and  the  sterling  principle  of  the  Pres- 
byterians, and  the  democratic  government  of 
the  Congregational  bodies,  and  the  boldness 
to  descend  into  the  slums  that  is  the  glory  of 
the  Salvation  Army,  and  if  there  be  any  others 
who  name  the  name  of  our  Master,  even  their 
portion  also:  "Jesus  Christ  Himself  being 
the  chief  corner-stone,  in  whom  all  the  build- 
ing fitly  framed  together  groweth  unto  an  holy 
261 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

temple  in  the  Lord;  the  whole,  according  to 
the  effectual  working  in  the  measure  of  every  part, 
making  increase  and  building  itself  up  in 
love." 

In  those  days,  soon  to  come,  shall  the  sun 
as  he  runs  his  rim  of  light  around  a  wakening 
world  upon  the  Lord's  day,  touch  the  harp  of 
praise  in  all  temples,  and  the  air  shall  fill  with 
the  Te  Deum,  the  universal  hymn,  sung  by  all 
nations  and  by  the  islands  of  the  sea,  by  "all 
men  everywhere  lifting  up  holy  hands  without 
wrath  or  doubting": 

"We  praise  Thee,  O  God: 
We  acknowledge  Thee  to  be  the  Lord: 
All  the  earth  doth  worship  Thee, 
The  Father  everlasting. 
To  Thee  all  angels  cry  aloud; 
The  heavens  and  all  the  powers  therein 
To  Thee  cherubim  and  seraphim 
Continually  do  cry: 
Holy!  holy!  holy! 
Lord  God  of  Sabaoth: 
Heave7i  and  earth  are  full 
Of  the  majesty  of  Thy  glory." 


262 


SUGGESTIONS 

Christianity  is  human  as  much  as  it  is  divine. 

It  is  only  when  we  conceive  God's  purpose  to  be 
the  development  of  mankind  that  we  can  understand 
the  Old  Testament. 

The  proof  of  the  church's  claim  to  be  of  God  is 
not  its  impeccability  but  its  progress. 

Christianity ,  conceived  by  Deity  and  born  of  human- 
ity, has  exhibited  both  the  power  of  its  Father  and 
the  frailty  of  its  mother. 

Infants  are  always  pure  and  sweet;  it  is  only  when 
they  grow  up  and  begin  to  absorb  their  environment 
that  they  become  corrupt;  early  Christianity  was 
idyllic;  then  for  a  chiliad  or  so  it  has  been  sowing  its 
wild  oats;  some  day  it  will  be  a  man. 

Religion  has  had  many  reformations,  but  none  of 
them  were  ever  made  by  irreligious  men;  Christianity 
is  reformed  only  by  Christians. 

Bad  as  the  church  has  been,  there  has  never  been 
a  time  when  it  was  quite  so  bad  as  the  world  in  which 
it  lay. 

All  advance  in  thought-life  begins  in  skepticism; 
not  the  irreverent  sort  which  revolts  at  religion  be- 
cause it  forbids  sin,  but  the  reverent  sort  which  longs 
for  a  wider  word  for  a  widening  idea. 

If  the  church  is  not  so  near  Christ  as  it  was  in 
apostolic  days,  the  outlying  world  is  a  good  deal 
nearer;  and  Christ  came  to  save  the  world. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE    LEAVEN 

The  Personal   Influence  of  God  is  the  Propagating 
Power  of  Christianity 


"The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto  leaven,  which 
a  woman  took  and  hid  in  three  measures  of  meal,  till 
the  whole  was  leavened." — Jesus,  Matt.  xiii.  33. 

"The  most  essential  feature  of  Man  is  his  improv- 
ableness." — John  Fiske,  Destiny  of  Man,  p.  71. 

"Christianity,  then,  has  a  power  to  prepare  a  godly- 
seed.  It  not  only  takes  hold  of  the  world  by  its  con- 
verting efficacy,  but  it  has  a  silent  force  that  is  much 
stronger  and  more  reliable;  it  moves,  by  a  kind  of 
destiny,  in  causes  back  of  all  the  eccentric  and  casual 
operations  of  mere  individual  choice,  preparing,  by 
a  gradual  growing  in  of  grace,  to  become  the  great 
populating  motherhood  of  the  world."  —  Horace 
BusHNELL,  The  Out- Populating  Power  of  the  Chris- 
tian Stock. 

"  The  desire  of  power  in  excess  caused  angels  to 
fall;  the  desire  of  knowledge  in  excess  caused  Man 
to  fall;  but  in  charity  there  is  no  excess;  neither 
Angel  nor  Man  come  in  danger  by  it." — Bacon,  Es- 
says.    Of  Goodness  and  Goodness  in  Nature. 


CHAPTER   X 

Religion  being  merely  the  personality  of 
God,  Christianity  the  personality  of  Christ, 
how  is  it  to  be  propagated?  Can  a  personality 
be  taught?  What  is  the  divine  method  of  the 
spread  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven? 

Jesus  had  before  Him  as  models  three 
forms  by  which  vast  systems  had  been  spread 
among  men,  each  of  them  having  had  great 
success.  The  Greek  method  was  by  reason- 
ing. By  argument  and  the  skill  of  dialectic 
the  philosophy  of  Greece  had  dominated  the 
master  minds  of  the  world.  The  Roman 
method  was  organization.  By  force  and  dis- 
play of  material  grandeur  Rome  had  assumed 
the  control  of  the  earth.  The  Oriental 
method  was  by  the  imagination.  By  playing 
upon  the  vague,  unknown  mysteries  of  life 
and  death  the  powerful  faiths  of  the  East  had 
risen  to  wide  dominion.  But  Jesus  chose  none 
of  these  three.  Because  His  religion  was  not 
a  philosophy  it  could  not  be  advanced  by 
logic;  because  it  was  not  an  institution  nor 
an  organization  it  could  not  be  aided,  but 
only  hindered,  by  authority  and  force;  be- 
267 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

cause  it  was  not  a  superstition,  it  could  in 
nowise  be  assisted  by  shadowy  fears.  His 
religion  was  none  of  these;  it  was  a  Life. 
As  such  it  could  only  be  spread  by  contact. 
As  life  goes  from  man  to  man  so  the  eternal 
life  was  to  follow  the  same  channel.  The 
disciples  were  called  the  salt  of  the  earth  and 
the  light  of  the  world;*  and  the  personal 
influence  of  God  was  to  go  from  individual  to 
individual  even  as  the  flavor  of  salt  is  diffused 
from  particle  to  particle,  or  as  light  is  passed 
along  a  signal  line  from  torch  to  torch,  each 
lighting  the  next. 

But  the  manner  of  the  Gospel's  growth  is 
best  seen  in  the  parable  of  the  leaven.^  The 
illustration  there  given  is  so  vivid  and  the 
analogy  has  such  perfect  truth  throughout 
that  it  may  perhaps  repay  us  to  pursue  it. 

In  the  very  nature  of  fermentation  we  may 
see  a  profound  illustration  of  the  way  in  which 
the  personality  of  Jesus  affects  the  personality 
of  the  man.  For  the  ferment  does  not  pro- 
duce the  change  in  the  mass  by  entering  into 
chemical  union  with  it,  and  thus  producing  a 
new  substance  different  from  both;  which  is 
the  way  that  chemical  changes  are  made, 
oxygen,  for  instance,  uniting  with  hydrogen 
to  produce  water,  or  uniting  with  nitrogen  to 
produce   common   air;    but  the  alteration   is 

'  Matt.  V.  13,  14.  '  Matt.  xiii.  33. 

26S 


THE   LEAVEN 

strictly  in  the  wort  itself,  on  account  of  the 
presence  of  the  leaven.  This,  in  a  peculiarly 
beautiful  way,  illustrates  the  "conversion"  of 
the  natural  man  into  the  new  man  in  Christ 
Jesus,  from  the  godless  to  the  Christian  man. 
For  it  makes  clear  the  two  points  about  con- 
version which  seem  so  strange.  First,  the 
change  is  not  spontaneous;  no  man  of  him- 
self, without  the  presence  of  God  in  him,  can 
develop  into  a  Christian.  Yet,  secondly,  the 
change  after  all  is  simply  a  change  in  the 
man;  although  different  in  his  character,  yet 
he  is  the  same,  with  the  same  passions  and 
will  as  before.  Take  the  fermentation  of 
milk,  the  souring  of  sweet  milk,  a  process  by 
which  the  milk  sugar  of  the  milk,  by  a  mere 
re-arrangement  of  its  particles,  passes  into 
lactic  acid.  Professor  Dittmar  cites  this  case 
of  milk,  and  after  comparing  it  with  instances 
of  mere  chemical  change,  concludes  that 
"fermentations,  as  a  class  of  chemical  reac- 
tions, are  characteristically  non-spontaneous, 
and  consequently  must  be  caused  by  reagents, 
although  these  reagents  have  no  place  in  the 
mere  balance-sheet  of  the  reaction.  In  fact," 
he  continues,  "experience  shows  that  no  fer- 
mentable chemical  species  will  ferment  .  .  . 
unless  it  be  kept  in  direct  contact  with  some 
specific  'ferment,'  which,  although  it  contrib- 
utes nothing  to  the  substance  of  the  products 
269 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

which  figure  in  the  equation,  nevertheless 
induces  the  reaction  'by  its  presence,'  as  the 
phrase  goes.  "^  Although  this  does  not 
explain  the  rationale  of  God's  action  on  the 
soul  (for  that  is  as  inexplicable  to  us  as 
the  reason  why  fermentation  takes  place  only 
in  the  presence  of  leaven,  yet  leaving  the 
leaven  unchanged,  is  inexplicable  to  the  sci- 
entists), yet  it  illustrates  how  it  is  that  after 
conversion  no  part  of  the  individuality  of  the 
soul  has  been  lost,  the  soul  and  God  still  each 
retain  their  respective  personalities,  yet  the 
soul  is  utterly  different  from  what  it  was  be- 
fore, "by  a  rearrangement  of  its  particles," 
as  it  were. 

In  the  acts  of  Jesus,  as  narrated  in  the  gos- 
pels, we  see  how  He  made  use  of  this  leaven 
method  alone,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other 
methods — that  is,  He  made  followers  by  His 
personal  influence  only,  never  by  argument, 
by  force,  nor  by  any  sort  of  working  upon 
superstitions.  The  Pharisees  challenged  Him 
to  show  them  a  "sign,"  to  awe  them  by 
supernal  displays  into  following  Him,  but  He 
replied  that  "a  wicked  and  adulterous  gener- 
ation seeketh  after  a  sign.  "^  Again,  they 
proposed  to  argue  the  case  with  Him,  but 
He   refused    to   fence  at   logic  and   confined 

>  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  article  "Fermentation." 
"  Matt.  xii.  39. 

270 


THE   LEAVEN 

Himself  to  illustrations,  for  "without  a  par- 
able spake  He  not  unto  them. "  ^  Peter  seized 
the  sword  and  smote  off  the  ear  of  the  high 
priest's  servant,  but  Jesus  rebuked  the  attempt 
to  use  force  in  His  kingdom;^  and  on  another 
occasion,  when  the  disciples  wished  to  call 
down  fire  from  heaven  upon  their  opponents, 
He  declared,  "Ye  know  not  what  manner  of 
spirit  ye  are  of."  ' 

One  is  struck  with  the  calmness  and,  it 
almost  seems,  the  apparent  indifference  of 
Jesus  in  making  converts,  as  compared 
with  the  zeal  of  His  followers  in  after  ages. 
There  was  no  enthusiasm  in  Him  for  recruit- 
ing and  organizing  His  army  of  believers. 
Often  He  openly  discouraged  them  that  would 
have  come  after  Him,  because  their  motives 
were  bad.  To  some  He  said  they  followed 
Him  merely  for  the  loaves  and  fishes;*  an- 
other time  He  insisted  that  men  should  count 
the  cost  before  entering  upon  such  a  life  ;^ 
He  reminded  others  that  the  foxes  had  holes 
and  the  birds  had  nests,  but  the  Son  of  man 
had  not  where  to  lay  His  head.^  None  of  His 
disciples  took  up  with  Him  as  a  result  of  the 
issue  of  a  course  of  reasoning.  We  do  not 
read  that  one  of  His  true  followers  became 
such  because  of  His  miracles,  at  least  none  of 

*  Mark  iv.  34.  *  John  vi.  26. 

'  Matt.  xxvi.  51.  "  Luke  xiv.  28. 

»  Luke  ix.  55.  •  Luke  ix.  58. 

271 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

His  more  noted  and  intimate  followers.  But 
how  were  His  disciples  made?  Only  by  His 
personal  influence.  "Follow  Me,"  and 
straightway  some  forsook  their  nets,  and 
another  his  seat  as  a  tax-collector,  and  fol- 
lowed Him.  Mary  and  Martha  were  devoted 
to  Him  before  ever  He  raised  Lazarus;  'twas 
not  His  ghostly  power,  but  His  own  self  that 
won  them.  And  after  His  death  the  disciples 
went  everywhere  witnessing  for  Him.  They 
reasoned  and  they  performed  miracles,  to  be 
sure,  but  it  was  as  witnesses  they  conquered, 
it  was  through  "testimony"  they  won  others 
to  that  Christ  who  had  won  them.  Thus  the 
touch  of  Jesus  brought  His  immediate  follow- 
ers, their  touch  in  turn  brought  others,  and 
so  on,  even  as  the  leaven  leaveneth  the  whole 
lump. 

The  wisdom  of  Jesus  in  choosing  this  form 
of  power,  to  which  to  commit  His  Gospel,  is 
apparent  in  that  personal  influence  is  the 
XTiOst  powerful  force  known  to  this  day  among 
men.  All  other  modes  of  commanding  men 
are  superficial  and  leave  the  inner  man  un- 
touched. Jesus  penetrated  beneath  all  these 
and  seized  the  real  force  that  moves  and 
molds  mankind.  By  force  and  arms  you  may 
change  one's  actions — the  conduct,  but  not 
the  man.  By  argument  you  can  change  his 
opinions,  but  not  his  emotions  and  his  will. 
272 


THE   LEAVEN 

By  marvelous  displays  of  grandeur  and  glory 
you  can  change  his  feelings,  arousing  awe, 
admiration,  or  fear;  the  sentiments,  not  the 
reason.  By  wealth  you  may  bribe  him,  excite 
his  cupidity,  and  thus  again  change  his  con- 
duct, but  not  his  reason  nor  his  will. 

But  when  you  attach  a  man  to  you  as  a 
friend,  and  he  comes  under  the  spell  of  your 
personality,  the  whole  man  is  subtly  changed 
to  become  like  you.  He  begins  to  imitate 
your  ways — that  is,  you  are  altering  his  con- 
duct; he  begins  to  talk  as  you  do — that  is, 
your  opinions  are  becoming  his;  his  taste  and 
feelings  copy  yours;  even  his  will  is  conform- 
ing to  your  will.  And  all  this  transformation 
is  going  on  in  him  with  his  entire  approval; 
he  delights  in  it;  and,  not  as  in  the  case  of 
the  other  agencies,  where  he  resists  all  other 
forms  of  power  brought  to  bear  on  him  as 
repulsive  to  his  self-respect,  now  he  boasts  of 
and  cooperates  with  the  influence  of  his  friend 
in  himself. 

Many  phases  of  life  show  the  potency  of 
personality.  This  power  is  increased  by  the 
numbers  of  those  partaking  of  it.  By  addi- 
tion it  acquires  dynamic  force  in  geometric 
ratio.  So  in  the  unquestioning  obedience  to 
fashion's  decrees,  wherein  we  all  quietly  sub- 
mit, we  are  simply  yielding  to  the  pressure  of 
the  persons  about  us.  No  one  adopts  a  style 
273 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

of  dress  because  it  is  reasonable,  for  these 
styles  are  often  most  unreasonable,  but  we 
meekly  yield  to  the  most  absurd  of  them 
rather  than  resist  this  force  and  be  called 
eccentric.  So  what  we  call  public  opinion  is 
the  most  mighty  power  to-day  known.  The 
two  greatest  nations  of  earth  are  confessedly 
governed  by  it,  and  in  a  less  degree  are  all 
the  other  civilized  countries.  Thrones  are 
but  as  reeds  before  it.  It  makes  armies  vic- 
torious or  defeats  them.  It  enforces  law  and 
without  it  any  law  is  a  dead  letter.  And  pub- 
lic opinion  is  nothing  but  opinion  which  has 
gained  resistless  energy  by  acquiring  the 
power  of  many  strong  personalities;  it  is 
potent  or  weak  in  proportion  to  the  numbers 
of  men,  and  the  personal  force  of  the  men, 
who  hold  it.  Did  Jesus  foresee  that  in  the 
ages  to  come  this  force  of  personality,  to 
which  He  boldly  intrusted  the  propagation  and 
defense  of  His  kingdom,  would  thus  be  the 
acknowledged  chief  power  in  human  govern- 
ment and  all  human  concerns?  Did  He  not 
know  that,  once  His  Gospel  became  the  per- 
"^^  sonal  conviction  of  a  sufficient  number  and 
quality  of  men,  it  would  then  become  an  irre- 
sistible tide,  needing  no  law  nor  army  nor 
organization  behind  it,  but  sweeping  on  to 
overwhelm  the  earth,  *'as  the  waters  cover 
the  sea?"  Men  have  always  been  looking  for 
274 


THE   LEAVEN 

"the  power  of  God"  to  be  manifested  in  some 
crude,  superficial  way,  not  realizing  that  the 
personality  of  Jesus  is  the  power  of  God. 
Thus  when  He  appeared  after  His  resurrec- 
tion, His  disciples  asked,  '*Lord,  wilt  Thou  at 
this  time  restore  .  again  the  kingdom  of 
Isfaef?**  *  And  replying.  He  declared  it  was 
not  for  them  to  know  the  times  and  the  sea- 
sons; they  had  the  wrong  idea  of  God's 
power;  that  power  was  not  to  be  shown  in 
divine  pyrotechnics,  but  it  was  to  operate,  as 
leaven,  through  them;  "But  ye  shall  receive 
power  and  be  witnesses  unto  Me  unto  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth." 

Another  aspect  of  the  operation  of  God's 
power  in  Christ  is  seen  in  the  secrecy  of  the 
leaven's  working.  The  change  in  a  man's 
nature  when  he  comes  to  know  Jesus  is,  in  a 
manner,  unconscious.  Just  as  when  you 
associate  with  a  strong  friend  you  are  changed 
to  become  like  him,  all  the  while  thinking  it 
is  of  yourself  you  are  changing  by  your  own 
volition.  You  do  not  think  of  yourself  as 
doing,  liking,  and  willing  things  because  your 
friend  does,  likes,  and  wills  them;  but  you 
suppose  you  thus  act  because  you  wish  to. 
He  has  percolated  secretly  into  your  desires 
and  tastes^  and  changed  them,  or  ever  you  were 
aware.     The  heart  has  spies  out  to  detect  all 

'  Acts  i.  6-7. 

27s 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

other  forms  of  attempt  to  control  it;  law 
rouses  opposition,  argument  combativeness, 
wealth  self-respect,  and  fear  suspicion,  but 
personality  steals  in  and  captures  the  heart 
with  the  heart's  consent;  this  works  with, 
the  others  against,  you. 

Thus  is  Christ  called  not  only  the  ''power 
of  God,"  but  also  *'the  wisdom  of  God."* 
The  divine  wisdom  is  apparent  more  in  the 
way  His  personality  has  conquered  than  in  all 
other  exhibitions  of  Almighty  intelligence. 
There  is  more  shrewdness,  judgment,  percep- 
tion, and  foresight  shown  in  the  operation  of 
Jesus  than  in  any  other  of  God's  works  that 
we  can  see.  The  law  was  a  form  of  God's 
power,  but  it  lost  its  force  and  had  to  give 
way  for  a  better  motive.  Therefore  came 
this  new  display  of  wisdom,  *'Immanuel,  God 
with. us, "  which  men  thought  foolish,  and 
which  a  hundred  times  they  have  proclaimed 
as  dead  and  gone,  but  which  to-day  is  the 
most  vital  power  in  the  human  race. 

There  is  no  danger  in  the  fullest  use  of  this 
power.  The  use  of  other  ways  to  influence 
men  is  accompanied  with  extreme  difficulty, 
and  has  had  most  lamentable  results.  Eccle- 
siastical authority  has  made  heresy  and  rebel- 
lion, arguments  have  created  infidels,  wealth 
and  social  advantages  have  produced  hypo- 

*  I  Cor.  i.  24. 

276 


THE   LEAVEN 

crites.  But  the  personality  of  God  in  Christ 
shining  in  and  through  men  has  done  good, 
only  good,  nothing  but  good.  Not  that  church 
organizations,  books  of  Christian  "evi- 
dences," and  the  hope  of  a  better  social 
standing  are  bad  motives;  they  are  bad  only 
when  taken  in  themselves,  when  there  is  no 
supreme  Christ-person  in  them. 

The  kingdom  of  God  is  like  leaven  also  in 
its  silence.  We  naturally  turn  to  things  that 
make  great  noise  for  our  symbols  of  power. 
This  is  our  childishness.  All  noise  is  waste. 
The  real  power  of  the  lightning's  bolt  is  not 
in  the  thunder,  but  in  the  electricity.  What 
we  hear  in  the  roar  of  the  locomotive  or  the 
trolley  car  is  the  friction  and  the  offal  of 
power;  the  real  force  of  the  steam  and  the 
electric  current  is  intrinsically  silent.  So  we 
call  the  army  and  navy  the  strength  of  the 
nation;  but  its  real  strength  is  in  the  senti- 
ments of  patriotism  and  heroism,  and  in  the 
skill  of  hand  and  ingenuity  of  brain  of  its  peo- 
ple. In  like  manner  we  have  been  deceived 
as  to  the  real  evidence  of  the  power  of  the 
Gospel.  It  is  not  in  the  number  of  church 
members;  it  is  still  a  mistake  to  "number 
Israel."  It  is  not  in  the  great  endowments 
of  Christian  institutions  and  the  revenues  of 
the  church.  It  is  not  in  the  laws.  Church 
and  law  are  not  supports  of  the  Gospel. 
277 


/ 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

The  Gospel  is  the  support  of  them.  Take 
the  personal  influence  of  Jesus  out  of  them 
and  they  would  crumble  like  a  mummy.  It  is 
the  life  that  gives  efficiency  to  the  body,  not 
the  body  to  the  life.  God  was  not  in  the 
earthquake  nor  the  storm  nor  the  fire,  but  in 
the  still,  small  voice.  The  potency  of  Chris- 
tianity to-day  is  not  in  the  great  works  Chris- 
tians are  doing,  but  it  is  in  what  Christians 

\    fire.     Our  efficiency  is  not  tested  by  our  volt- 

*/  tion^  but  by  our  condition. 

Leaven  is  also  mysteriously  i7ivisible.  No 
science  has  as  yet  explained  how  and  why 
leaven  changes  the  wort.  Neither  has  any 
metaphysician  explained  how  and  why  Christ 
renews  the  heart  in  His  own  image;  yet  both 
are  indisputable  facts.  So  you  cannot  tell  the 
size  of  the  church,  and  who  are  of  Christ,  and 
who  are  not;  no  man  can  read  that  new  name 
save  him  that  has  it.  The  church  is  not 
bounded  by  its  membership.  For  as  a  candle 
throws  its  beams  into  the  darkness,  so  does 
the  church  "shine  in  a  naughty  world."  '  A 
little  here  and  there,  a  subtle  influence  in 
press  and  legislature  and  business  and  soci- 
ety— who  shall  tell  where  the  refracted  rays 
of  Christ's  personality  penetrate?  He  is  fill- 
ing earth   with   His  Spirit  as  a  rosebush  fills 

'  *'  How  far  that  little  candle  throws  its  beams! 
So  shines  a  good  deed  in  a  naughty  world" 

The  Merchant  of  Venice,  Act  V.,  Scene  i. 

27S 


THE   LEAVEN 

the  garden  with  its  perfume.  In  addition  to 
*'them  that  are  His"  how  many  feel  His 
flavor,  His  warmth,  His  magnetism?  As  the 
light  precedes  the  sun  and  the  earth  feels  the 
god  of  day  before  he  rises  to  beam  upon  it 
with  his  own  face,  so  civilization,  business, 
society,  all  human  thought  and  imagination 
and  conduct,  are  quickened  and  affected  by 
the  presence  of  "the  Sun  of  righteousness" 
that  has  risen  "with  healing  in  his  wings"  full 
upon  the  heart  and  life  of  a  few. 

The  reader  of  the  New  Testament  has  been 
struck  by  the  fact,  moreover,  that  leaven  is 
made  to  illustrate  the  work  of  evil  as  well  as 
of  good.^     The  Jews  ate  unleavened  bread  at 
their   feast   of  the   Passover   because    leaven 
was  a  sign   of  the  workings  of  heathenism, 
and   the    chosen    nation   should   be   kept  un- 
tainted.    Jesus  warned  His  disciples  to  beware 
of  the    leaven    of  the    Pharisees.     In    other 
words  the  kingdom  of  hell  as  well  as  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  like  a  lump  of  leaven,  and 
the   personality  of  God   works  precisely  the 
same  way  in  which  works  also  the  personality 
of  evil  beings.     It  is  no  new,  strange  method  \ 
God    in    Christ   adopts.     "As  by   man   came  \ 
death,  by  man,    also,   came  the  resurrection  j 
from  the  dead."     "As  in  Adam  all  die,  even  j 
5<7  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive.  "^     The 

*  Mark  viii.  15.  '  i  Cor.  xv.  21,  22. 

279 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

terms  of  the  new  life  are  direct  antitheses  to 
the  terms  of  the  old  life.  Born  in  sin,  born 
again  from  above ;  sin  is  death,  Christ  is  life ; 
sin  is  sickness,  Christ  came  healing;  sin  is 
not  outside,  but  within  the  very  texture  of  the 
soul;  Christ  is  to  be  formed  within,  not  oper- 
ating upon  us  from  without. 

Now,  there  are  three  ways  in  which  evil 
affects  me — first,  personally  and  consciously, 
then  through  my  environment;  and  again,  by 
heredity.  "Even  so"  Christ  operates  by  His 
influence  to  save  me. 

Personally  I  am  conscious  of  sin  in  the 
direct  influences  brought  to  bear  on  me  by 
others.  Sometimes  I  am  pressed  to  sin  by 
fear,  fear  of  some  loss  or  pain  or  of  temporal 
unpleasantness  or  disgrace;  "even  so"  I  am 
induced  to  righteousness  by  the  Gospel's  ele- 
vating that  fear  from  its  action  as  a  base  and 
cowardly  feeling  and  making  it  to  be  a  noble 
and  heroic  emotion,  as  it  is  manliest  of  all 
things  in  a  brave  man  yet  to  fear  his  own  self- 
respect  or  the  scorn  of  good  men  or  the  dis- 
pleasure of  God.^  Fear  of  a  low,  sensual  life 
is  not  a  craven  dread  of  the  consequences  of  it, 
but  a  loathing  and  fleeing  from  its  very  self 
as  a  dreadful  thing.  Again,  my  imagination 
tends  to  lead  me  astray,  being  contaminated 


"  Dowered  with  the  hate  of  hate,  the  scorn  of  scorn, 
The  love  of  love."  Tennyson:  The  Poet. 

280 


THE   LEAVEN 

with  unclean  visions  or  conceiving  for  me  for- 
bidden pleasures;  and  '*even  so"  Christ  cap- 
tures the  fancy  and  sets  it  upon  divine  work, 
making  it  take  pleasure  in  picturing  the 
delight  of  being  kind  and  helpful,  filling  it 
with  anticipations  of  the  joy  I  may  work  in 
sad  men  by  my  effort,  and  painting  the  glories 
of  that  place  in  the  heavens  He  has  prepared 
for  me.  Again,  my  habits  are  prone  to  be- 
come evil  chains  for  my  spirit;  "even  so"  His 
work  in  the  world  has  made  churches  by 
whose  ritual  and  services  I  can  form  good 
habits,  His  Book  preserves  the  law  with  its 
regulative  moralities,  and  His  own  and  His 
chief  servants'  examples  encourage  me  in 
practicing  religious  routine  and  the  arts  of 
holy  living,  that  thus  custom  may  buttress  my 
soul  when  mind  and  spirit  are  weak.  But, 
most  of  all,  evil  affects  me  directly  by  arous- 
ing my  bad  desires,  such  as  greed,  ambition, 
jealousy,  appetite,  and  the  like.  Now,  he 
does  not  come  among  my  desires  to  stamp 
them  out,  to  make  a  desert  of  my  heart  and 
call  it  peace;  but  He  comes  saying,  *'What 
God  has  cleansed  call  thou  not  common";^ 
there  is  no  natural  appetite  nor  propensity  of 
flesh  or  spirit  that  is  not  holy;  I  am  not  to 
kill  my  flesh  by  starvation  and  mutilation;  I 
am^tb  ^a^s^r  it^^  says  not,   *'Slay  thy 

»  Acts  X.  15. 

381 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

heart,"  but,  "My  son,  give  Me  thy  heart."* 
He  comes  not  to  destroy,  but  to  save  life. 
He  comes  to  set  all  the  desires  in  order,  to 
establish  regulative  harmony  where  was  dis- 
cord. Of  loves  He  approves,  so  He  but  be 
the  king  of  love  in  me.  Eating  and  drinking 
are  right,  so  they  but  be  "unto  the  Lord." 
Ambition  is  holy,  if  it  be  His  ambition — to 
serve.  Avarice  is  right,  if  it  be  a  desire  to 
seek  "not  yours  but  you,"  not  to  be  rich  in 
taking  goods  from  men,  but  in  increasing  good 
in  men.  So  He  descends  into  the  very  cel- 
lars and  hidden  wells  of  life,  and  where  sin 
did  abound  His  loving  favor  does  much  more 
abound. 

But  I  not  only  am  worked  upon  by  evil 
directly,  but  indirectly,  through  my  environ- 
ment unconsciously  molding  me.  There  are 
millions  sinful,  not  because  they  personally 
and  deliberately  choose  to  be  so,  but  because 
their  surroundings  are  such  that  they  never 
have  known  anything  else.  They  live  under 
systems  of  caste  and  superstition;  all  around 
them  lust  is  deified;  cruelty  is  in  the  air  they 
breathe;  they  suck  in  beastliness  and  sin  with 
their  mothers'  milk.  Therefore  as  sin  thus 
is  entrenched  in  environment,  "even  so" 
Jesus  proposes  to  change  and  is  changing  that 

*  Pr.  xxiii.  26. 

282 


THE   LEAVEN 

environment.  As  the  kingdom  of  the  devil 
has  settled  into  vast  institutions  and  govern- 
ments and  public  opinions,  as  in  China  and 
the  cannibal  islands,  so  the  kingdom  of  God 
"even  so"  develops  great  churches,  civiliza- 
tions, democracies.  The  condition  of  any 
man,  even  a  bad  man,  born  in  the  United 
States,  where  churches  and  English  civiliza- 
tion and  a  free  government  make  the  atmos- 
phere for  him,  is  vastly  better  and  more  like 
Christ  than  the  condition  of  a  man  born  in 
Central  Africa  or  Middle  China,  where  he  sees 
naught  but  cruelty,  tyranny,  lechery,  and 
superstition:  and  that  without  touching  the 
personal  volition  of  the  man  himself.  Where 
Christ's  influence  goes,  laws  and  governments 
and  customs  and  habits  of  life  insensibly  are 
elevated,  giving  the  individual  a  better  chance. 
The  third  way  evil  works  in  me  is  by 
heredity,  the  most  important  of  all,  it  is  some- 
times said.  We  can  never  decide  whether 
heredity,  environment,  or  personal  volition 
is  most  responsible  for  our  misdeeds.  Per- 
haps it  is  a  useless  question;  they  all  inter- 
play; but  the  personal  influence  of  God  in 
Christ  is  working  through  all  of  them,  and 
heredity  not  the  least.  Paul  compares  the 
two  Adams,  setting  the  one's  work  over 
against  the  other's.  And  whether  we  accept 
the  modern  scientific  theory,  that  man  evolved 
283 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

from  the  beast,  or  the  view  heretofore  held  by 
most  churchly  teaching,  the  comparison  is 
good  scientifically  and  theologically.  That 
is,  whether  man's  rise  is  a  struggle  to  throw 
off  "the  heritage  of  the  beast,"  or  to  rid  him- 
self of  the  taint  of  "Adam's  fall,"  it  amounts 
to  the  same  thing  practically.  The  gist  of 
both  ideas  is  the  same;  that  I  have  inherited 
certain  evil  tendencies,  whether  evil  as 
animalizing  me  or  evil  as  alienating  me  from 
God,  and  that  it  is  for  me  to  lessen  the  power 
of  these  traits  in  me  and  transmit  them  in  a 
less  degree  to  my  child. 

Now,  it  is  a  historical  fact  that  previous  to 
Christ's  personality  getting  a  firm  foothold  in 
the  world — that  is,  previous  to  the  Reforma- 
tion— no  permanent  progress  was  made  by  the 
race.  There  were  spasmodic  rises  of  certain 
nations  into  dignity  and  grandeur,  such  as 
among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  but  the  lapse 
into  decay  was  speedy;  whereas  since  Jesus 
has  been  everywhere  preached  by  an  open 
Bible  as  a  risen  Lord,  there  has  been  a  gen- 
eral and  world-wide  progress  of  mankind. 

Jesus  emphasized  the  sanctity  of  marriage, 
the  family  life;  and  the  family  is  God's  insti- 
tution for  holding  the  new  generation  long 
enough  in  the  lap  of  the  old  to  rivet  progress 
and  make  the  advance  in  righteousness  secure. 
No  means,.,  is,  compa.rgtble  to  th^J^m^y  as  a 

284 


THE    LEAVEN 

vehicle    for  transmitting  personal    influence. 
Thus  it  is  the  apparent  plan  of  God  not  only 
to  save  the  individual,  but  to  save  the  human 
stock.     The  triumph  of  the  Gospel  is  to  be 
when   men  are  born  holy,   even  as  they  are 
now  born  in  sin;  when  the  personality  of  God 
in  Christ  is  to  be  bred  into  them,  coming  as 
a   power   in    the   very   blood.       To   this  end 
looked  the  prophets,  who  declared  that  "My 
people   shall   be   all   righteous,"   and    "They 
shall  not  teach,  every  man  his  neighbor,  say- 
ing, know  the  Lord;  for  all  shall  know  Me, 
from   the   least   to   the   greatest."      Through 
these  ancient  prophets  the  Lord  declared  that 
He  would  make  a  new  covenant  with  His  peo- 
ple, not  like  the  old  covenant  on  Sinai,  that 
of  outward   rules  and   laws,  "for  this  is  the 
covenant  that  I  will  make,  saith  the  Lord;  I 
will  put  my  laws  into  their  mind,  and  write 
them  in  their  hearts;  and  I  will  be  to  them  a 
God,   and  they    shall   be   to   Me   a  people." 
Thus  "Christ,  the  power  of  God,"  is  to  go  on 
purging  and  clarifying  the  human  stock,  re- 
generating it  by  the  same  process  by  which 
it  degenerated,   flowing  into   it   through   the 
avenues  of  heredity  until   all    men    shall   be 
born  into  the  world  like  John  the  Baptist, 
** sanctified  from  their  mother's  womb.  "^ 

>  ••  Before  thou  earnest  forth  out  of  the  womb  I  sanctified 
■  thee."    Jer.  i.  S-    See  also  Luke  i.  15. 

285 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

And  now  we  begin  to  see  the  rational,  scien- 
tific, common-sense  view  of  the  millennium, 
the  second  advent,  the  personal  reign  of  Jesus 
on  earth.  As  men  misconceived  the  meaning 
of  salvation  and  heaven  and  the  resurrection, 
grasping  the  lower,  the  tangible  thought,  and 
missing  the  true  and  upper  thought,  so  they 
have  caricatured  the  millennium,  conceiving  it 
to  be  some  theatric  return  of  a  bodily  Christ 
in  the  clouds,  to  take  place  after  the  Jews* 
restoration  to  Judea  as  a  nation,  or  after  the 
world  has  gone  on  getting  as  wicked  as  it  can, 
or  after  some  mystical  apocalyptic  "time 
and  times  and  a  half  a  time,"  and  all  such 
literalistic  artificialities.  But  the  millennium 
is  to  come  surely  after  the  manner  of  God's 
working  and  Christ's  Spirit.  His  manifest 
plan  is  by  orderly  development,  not  by  spec- 
tacular cataclysms.  The  world  is  to  be 
redeemed  "even  so"  as  in  Adam  it  died.  The 
personality  of  God  in  Christ  is  to  work  as 
leaven  "until  the  whole  be  leavened."  Not 
that  the  millennium  is  to  come  by  breeding 
alone,  but  by  heredity  and  environment  and 
personal  choice,  even  as  sin  has  spread. 

And  what  inconceivable  majesty  and  vast- 
ness  such  a  view  lends  to  the  whole  idea  of 
the  work  of  the  Gospel.  We  perceive  the 
Christ  entering  the  lists  with  evil  and  over- 
coming it  by  its  own  means.  Being  mani- 
286 


THE   LEAVEN 

fested  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil,  He 
is  attacking  wickedness  by  means  subtler  than 
its  own.  We  sometimes  despair  at  the  lack 
of  results  in  our  work  for  Him.  How  few  are 
converted  by  our  preaching!  Our  churches 
and  Sunday-schools  and  colleges,  how  unsatis- 
factory their  effect  seems  to  us!  How  many 
are  the  forces  of  the  wicked!  How  many 
are  the  hypocrites  among  us!  How  evasive, 
yet  how  potent,  are  the  lusts  of  the  flesh 
and  the  more  dangerous  weaknesses  of  the 
spirit!  How  vast  the  great  heathendoms  chat 
still  enslave  and  imbrute  men!  What  intel- 
lect, what  social  prestige  stands  over  against 
the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel!  How  dominant 
are  the  great  perversions  of  His  truth!  How 
selfishness  and  tyranny  and  greed  have 
invaded  business  methods!  In  a  word,  how 
great  are  the  kingdoms  of  the  "prince  of  this 
world!"  And  what  can  we,  who  have  naught 
but  the  preachment  of  the  Gospel,  avail 
against  the  prestige  and  resources  of  this 
immense  display?  ^-'*" 

But  when  we  rise  to  see  God  working 
according  to  the  programme  of  Jesus  we  begin 
to  see  wherein  is  our  hope  of  victory.  It  is 
in  the  personal  influence  of  God;  and  that  is 
shown  in  the  testimony,  the  personal  influ- 
ence of  His  followers.  Thus  Christ,  the  Cap- 
tain of  our  salvation,  is  not  a  whit  behind 
287 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

the  evil  one.  Is  wickedness  sly?  It  can 
creep  into  no  corner  of  the  heart,  no  depth  of 
desire,  where  the  Spirit  of  Him  that  made  the 
heart  cannot  find  and  slay  it.  Is  our  imagi- 
nation debauched  by  the  profligate  glories  of 
sin?  Sin  can  unroll  before  the  mind  no 
visions  like  unto  those  things  which  "eye 
hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither  hath  it 
entered  into  the  mind  of  man  to  conceive, 
but  which  God  hath  revealed  unto  us  by  His 
Spirit  which  He  has  given  us."  Do  evil 
friends  contaminate  us?  No  man  nor  woman 
has  been  given  such  power  over  us  as  He  has 
given  to  the  gentle  mother  whose  songs  have 
lulled  our  infant  slunibers  and  whose  prayers 
cling  like  changeless  dew  to  our  memory, 
songs  and  prayers  of  the  dying  love  and  risen 
power  of  our  God.  Are  the  immense  insti- 
tutions of  men,  their  governments,  their 
society,  their  business  practice,  corrupt  and 
corrupting?  As  proud  icebergs  melt  before 
the  glow  of  the  tropic  sun,  so  shall  they  dis- 
appear before  the  invincible  gentleness,  the 
triumphant  warmth  and  purity  of  the  Sun  of 
righteousness  whose  streaming  light  has  in  it 
the  potency  of  Almighty  God.  Are  we 
tainted  by  heredity?  No  taint  of  earthly 
parentage  is  of  force  to  annul  our  original 
heredity  from  the  Father  when  the  Christ 
shall  raise  us  up  to  be  heirs  of  God  and  joint- 
288 


THE   LEAVEN 

heirs  with  Himself.  Through  this  Man,  who 
is  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily,  radiates 
the  personal  influence  of  God  to  the  earth; 
secretly  as  the  leaven,  strangely  as  the  wind, 
tenderly  as  a  shepherd,  irresistibly  as  destiny, 
He  is  drawing  all  men  unto  Himself.  "Christ 
the  power  of  God!  Christ  the  wisdom  of 
God!  Wonderful,  Counselor,  the  mighty  God, 
the  everlasting  Father,  and  the  Prince  of 
Peace!  Of  the  increase  of  His  government 
there  shall  be  no  end,  to  order  it,  and  to  5 
establish  it,  with  judgment  and  with  justice 
from  henceforth  even  forever." 

"O  the  depths  of  the  riches  both  of  the 
wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God!  How  un- 
searchable are  His  judgments,  and  His  ways 
past  finding  out! 

**For  of  Him,  and  through  Him,  and  to 
Him,  are  all  things;  to  whom  be  glory 
forever!     Amen!"^ 

'  I  Cor.  i.  24;  Isa.  ix.  6;  Rom.  xi.  33-36- 


SUGGESTIONS 

In  propagating  His  religion  Jesus  did  not  use  argu- 
ment, for  His  religion  is  not  a  theory;  nor  force,  for 
His  religion  is  not  an  organization;  nor  fear,  for  His 
religion  is  not  a  superstition;  but  He  used  personal 
influence,  for  His  religion  is  a  Life. 

Personal  influence  is  a  force  that  increases  geo- 
metrically in  proportion  to  the  number  of  those  who 
share  it. 

Public  opinion  is  nothing  but  accumulated  personal 
influence. 

No  other  force  than  personality  can  change  even 
the  desires. 

All  other  forces  work  against  you,  personal  influ- 
ence with  you. 

All  other  forms  of  effort  to  make  Christians  are 
accompanied  with  danger,  except  the  form  of  personal 
influence. 

Church  and  law  are  not  the  support  of  the  Gospel; 
the  Gospel  is  the  support  of  them. 

The  aroma  of  Christ  has  worked  wonders  for  the 
world,  even  as  the  taste  of  Christ  has  done  for  the 
elect. 

The  influence  of  Jesus  descends  even  into  the  hid- 
den wells  of  our  life. 

Christ's  influence  reforms  not  only  individuals  but 
institutions,  giving  the  individual  a  better  chance. 

Christ  also  cleanses  the  channel  of  heredity. 

God  grows  things;  men  make  things. 

We  well  say  "Personal  Devil,"  for  there  is  no  devil 
but  personality. 

One's  personal  influence  alone  remains  in  the  world 
as  the  net  result  of  all  he  has  done. 


CHAPTER   XI 

HELL 

The  Bible  was  not  Given  to  Reveal  "Last  Things,** 
nor  Future   Events ;  not  to  Gratify  Curiosity,  but 


"What  is  that  to  thee?  Follow  thou  Me!  "—Jesus, 
John  xxi.  22. 

"Heav'n  but  the  Vision  of  fulfill'd  Desire, 
And  Hell  the  Shadow  of  a  Soul  on  fire." 

Omar  Khayyam,  Rubaiyai,  Stanza  67. 

"There  is  no  reason,  indeed,  against  our  believing 
anything  clearly  revealed  in  Scripture ;  but  there  is 
reason  against  going  beyond  Scripture  with  specula- 
tions of  our  own.  One  of  the  many  evils  resulting 
always  from  this,  is,  that  we  thus  lay  open  Christianity 
to  infidel  objections,  such  as  it  otherwise  would  have 
been  safe  from." — Whately,  Corruptions  of  Chris- 
tianity, p.  210. 

"While  Johnson  and  I  stood  in  calm  conference 
by  ourselves  in  Dr.  Taylor's  garden,  at  a  pretty  late 
hour  of  a  serene  autumn  night,  looking  up  to  the 
heavens,  I  directed  the  discourse  to  the  subject  of  a 
future  state.  My  friend  was  in  a  placid  and  most 
benignant  frame  of  mind.  'Sir,'  said  he,  ♦!  do  not 
imagine  that  all  things  will  be  made  clear  to  us  im- 
mediately after  death,  but  that  the  ways  of  Providence 
will  be  explained  to  us  very  gradually.'  I  ventured 
to  ask  him  concerning  the  doctrine  of  future  punish- 
ment. Johnson:  'Sir,  .  .  .  some  of  the  texts  of 
Scripture  upon  this  subject  are,  as  you  observe,  in- 
deed strong;  but  they  may  admit  of  a  mitigated  inter- 
pretation.* He  talked  to  me  upon  this  awful  and 
delicate  question  in  a  gentle  tone,  as  if  afraid  to  be 
decisive."— Bosv4rELL,Z?>^^//^^;zji7«,  Vol.  HI.,  p.  135. 


292 


CHAPTER   XI 

There  are  few  qualified  to  form  correct 
notions  about  the  future  state  of  the  wicked, 
because  long  ages  of  heated  controversy  have 
set  prejudices  firmly  in  most  minds  by  the 
biting  mordant  of  partisan  spirit.  If  one  is 
determined  that  he  will  hold  his  present 
opinion  true,  no  matter  what  may  be  said, 
it  will  be  manifestly  time  wasted  to  read  this 
or  any  other  writing  which  treats  upon  the 
subject.  Theological  disputes  ranging  through 
generations  have,  however,  considerable 
value  to  the  person  who  is  seeking  truth 
alone;  they  prove  to  him  ^  that  neither  side 
can  be  wholly  wrong,  else  so  many  sensible 
persons  would  not  continue  to  choose  it,  and 
that  neither  side  can  be  wholly  right,  else  so 
many  would  not  have  rejected  it;  and  still 
further,  that  the  whole  controversy  itself 
cannot  be  an  essential  and  pivotal  element  in 
our  religion,  else  God  would  not  have  left  it 
so  that  intelligent  and  pious  men  could  hon- 

'  Perhaps  it  would  be  more  exact  to  say  "they  make  it  appear 
extremely  probable  to  him,"  than  to  say  "  they  prove  to  nim," 
for  the  variations  of  error,  of  course,  have  no  value  to  locate  the 
truth. 

293 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

estly  have  had  such  variant  views;  and  fur- 
ther yet,  that  the  real,  true  view  will  never  be 
discovered  by  either  party  gaining  a  com- 
plete victory  and  routing  the  other,  else  it 
would  have  been  done  long  ago,  but  that  the 
truth  will  finally  appear,  as  indeed  it  has 
appeared  in  most  such  debates,  from  the  sub- 
sidence of  controversial  war,  and  from  the 
perception  that  after  all  both  sides  had  some- 
what of  truth,  and  that  they  were  separated, 
not  by  the  wrong  logic  of  the  one  and  the 
right  logic  of  the  other,  but  because  they  stood 
upon  different  points  of  view. 

There  are  two  parties  to  the  dispute  as  to 
whether  the  wicked  will  suffer  forever.  The 
one  insists  that  if  they  do  not  so  suffer  the 
very  heart  is  cut  out  of  the  Gospel.  They 
make  this  question  a  test  of  orthodoxy.  They 
think  that  to  abate  one  mite  from  the  eternity 
of  the  wicked's  woes  is  to  let  down  the  gates 
to  the  presumptuous  lawlessness  of  men;  it  is 
to  make  divine  justice  a  farce.  If  this  party 
be  called  extreme,  the  opposing  party  have 
often  proved  themselves  none  the  less  so. 
They  have  insisted  that  to  make  God  out  as 
capable  of  allowing  His  creatures  to  finally 
continue  in  misery  is  a  barbarous  notion; 
that  all  who  hold  to  it  are  ignorant  literal- 
ists,  and  that  none  except  those  who  believe 
God's  mercy  will  at  last  make  all  men  happy 
294 


HELL 

ought  to  be  allowed  to  open  their  mouths  in 
this  enlightened  day. 

Now,  in  one  respect,  at  least,  both  of  these 
factions  are  wrong,  in  that  they  are  trying  to 
settle  a  question  by  reason  (or,  to  be  more 
exact,  by  a  priori  reasoning),  which  in  the 
nature  of  the  case  can  only  be  settled  by  a 
divine  revelation.  Nobody  knows  and  nobody 
can  possibly  ascertain,  by  arguments  drawn 
from  that  extremely  limited  sphere  of  God's 
operations  we  in  this  world  can  observe,  what 
is  going  to  take  place  a  billion  years  from 
now.  If  God  intends  for  us  to  know,  He  will 
tell  us,  and  tell  us  certainly  in  clear  language. 
Therefore  the  question  must  be  decided  en- 
tirely by  the  Bible;  and  as  anything  can  be 
proved  by  a  person  coming  to  the  Bible  with 
a  ready-made  opinion,  as  he  can  pick  out  here 
and  there  texts  to  substantiate  any  view,  we 
must  call  to  our  aid  the  only  two  reliable 
interpreters  of  the  Bible — i.  e.^  common  sense 
and  the  Spirit  of  Jesus. 

Opening  the  ,  sacred  volume  and  reading 
over  all  that  is  said  upon  the  subject  of  the 
sufferings  of  the  wicked,  we  find,  first,  that 
as  far  as  the  Old  Testament  is  concerned, 
there  is  no  reference  to  their  punishment  in 
the  next  world  at  all.  The  old  dispensation 
was  entirely  temporal.  The  woes  pronounced 
were  to  overtake  the  rebellious  in  this  life; 
295 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

the  extremest  penalty  for  any  violation  of  law 
was  death.  The  author  of  Hebrews  sums  up 
that  criminal  code  by  saying,  "He  that 
despised  Moses'  law  died  without  mercy.  "^ 
While  there  may  be  hints  or  suggestions  of 
calamity  beyond  the  grave,  Moses  and  the 
prophets  never  plainly  declared  it,  and  they 
spake  understandingly  enough  when  they 
wished. 

It  was  Christ  who  "brought  immortality  to 
light."  It  is  when  we  read  the  New  Testa- 
ment that  we  gain  all  our  distinct  information 
about  the  future  state. 

Now,  before  we  read,  we  must  remind  our- 
selves why  we  read  the  Bible  at  all.  We  read 
it  to  find  out  what  we  do  not  already  know  or 
to  confirm  or  correct  what  we  do  know.  Cer- 
tain things  are  revealed  to  us  by  the  light  of 
nature,  or  natural  moral  instincts;  whatever 
harmonizes  with  these  instincts  and  approves 
them  may  be  lightly  treated  by  the  revelators, 
relying  upon  our  own  natures  not  to  doubt 
them;  but  whatever  is  contrary  to  those 
natural  convictions  of  mankind,  and  is  utterly 
different  from  them,  we  must  expect  to  be  set 
down  in  a  most  unmistakable  way.  The 
natural  feeling  of  men  is  that  a  sinner  ought 
to  suffer;  but  no  one  will  say  that  we  natu- 
rally think  he  ought  to  suffer  forever.    Hence, 

»  Heb.  X.  28. 

296 


HELL 

if  God  tntefids  to  convey  to  us  the  latter  piece 
of  information  we  shall  find  it  plainly  stated 
in  such  form  as  to  leave  no  room  for  reason- 
able doubt.  As,  for  instance,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  conviction  of  immortality  is  natural, 
and  always  in  some  form  or  other  has  been  a 
belief  of  every  religion;  therefore  Jesus  says 
of  this,  "If  it  were  not  so,  I  would  have  told 
you."  *  And  we  may  well  say  that  if  He  pur- 
posed to  tell  us  that  the  wicked  are  to  be 
eternally  punished  He  would  have  told  us 
explicitly. 

Taking  up,  then,  our  New  Testament,  and 
marking  carefully  all  parts  that  bear  upon 
the  fate  of  the  wicked,  we  are  struck  first  of 
all  by  the  fact  that  the  article  of  faith  in 
question — that  is,  that  the  wicked  are  to  be 
shut  up  in  a  hell  of  torment  forever  after  they 
die — is  nowhere  didactically,  categorically 
stated  in  plain  terms.  If  it  is  there,  it  is 
there  not  because  Jesus  or  His  apostles  said 
so  distinctly,  but  because  of  an  interpretation 
we  put  upon  their  words.  If  we  read  those 
words  with  that  idea  in  our  minds  to  begin 
with,  we  shall  indeed  find  not  a  few  texts 
that  agree  with  it,  but  the  idea  itself  is  not 
originally  revealed  in  the  Scriptures.  And 
knowing  as  we  do  that  all  false  religions 
reveled  in  hells  for  the  torment  of  unbeliev- 

»  John  xiv.  I. 

297 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

ers,  we  can  readily  see  that  the  idea  itself 
came  into  men's  minds  from  outside — that  is, 
from  heathen  or  rabbinical  sources,  and  estab- 
lished itself  in  Christian  theology  by  its 
remarkable  agreement  with  certain  figurative 
language  in  which  the  fate  of  the  evil  persons 
is  spoken  of. 

We  are  struck  next  with  this  feature  of  the 
language  used  in  treating  of  this  matter;  that 
it  consists  in  a  variety  of  illustrations  or  figures^ 
such  as  Gehenna  (the  valley  near  Jerusalem 
where  refuse  was  burned),  an  unquenchable 
fire,  an  undying  worm,  outer  darkness  where 
there  is  wailing  and  gnashing  of  teeth,  ever- 
lasting fire  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his 
angels,  or  such  woe  as  that  it  had  been  better 
had  the  man  never  been  born.^  Now,  com- 
mon sense  at  once  tells  us  that  these  figures 
cannot  all  be  literally  true,  for  they  are  con- 
tradictory; and  the  only  way  in  which  they 
can  be  understood  as  true  at  all  is  to  construe 
them  as  different  illustrations  of  some  one 
hidden  reality.  Furthermore,  the  God  who 
inspired  the  Scriptures  surely  inspired  the 
7node  in  which  they  convey  information;  and 

'  Gehenna,  Matt.  v.  22,  29;  x.  28;  xviii.  9,  etc.  Everlasting 
fire,  Matt.  xxv.  41.  Fire  that  shall  never  be  quenched,  Mark  ix. 
4S.  etc.  Worm  dieth  not,  Mark  ix.  44-46  only.  Outer  darkness, 
Matt.  viii.  12;  xxii.  13;  xxv.  30.  Wailing  and  gnashing  of  teeth, 
Matt.  xiii.  42.  Fire  prepared  for  the  devil,  xxv.  41.  Better  never 
been  born,  Mark  xiv.  21.  Tormented  in  flame.  Luke  xvi.  24.  Lake 
of  fire.  Rev.  xx,  14.  Lake  of  fire  and  brimstone,  Rev.  xxi.  8. 
Second  death,  Rev.  xxi.  8. 

298 


HELL 

it  is  evident  that  it  was  the  manifest  design 
of  Jesus  not  to  reveal  the  place  where  the 
wicked  are  to  go,  neither  the  details  nor  the 
duration  of  their  suffering,  but  to  conceal  these 
very  points^  while  He  disclosed  the  general 
nature  of  their  fate. 

There  can  be  no  figures  or  symbols,  how- 
ever, unless  there  is  some  reality  to  correspond 
with  them.  And  the  real  fact  that  fits  all 
these  pictures  is  that  to  persist  in  evil  will 
surely  bring  upon  one  boundless  misery.  Like 
a  carcass  in  the  Gehenna  field  of  offal,  he 
will  cut  himself  off  from  the  society  of  the 
good;  his  anguish  will  be  such  as  can  only  be 
described  by  fire,  outer  darkness,  weeping 
and  wailing,  and  gnashing  of  teeth.  No  one 
can  read  the  words  of  Jesus  and  the  writings 
of  Paul  without  gathering  that  the  condition 
of  those  who  neglect  so  great  salvation  is 
something  infinitely  tragic.  Not  only  would 
Jesus  not  have  used  such  lurid  figures  when 
He  referred  to  the  fate  of  the  wicked,  but 
He  never  would  have  been  so  terribly  in 
earnest;  He  would  not  have  so  agonized  in 
Gethsemane  nor  have  so  died  upon  Calvary, 
had  not  that  from  which  He  came  to  save 
men  been  pitiable  and  revolting  in  the  ex- 
treme. Because  Jesus  did  not  detail  the  cir- 
cumstances, fix  the  duration  and  locate  the 
place  of  the  evil  ones  after  death,  it  is  the 
299 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

most  wretched  perversion  of  a  logical  conclu- 
sion to  hold  that  He  did  not  at  all  say  they 
were  to  suffer,  or  that  He  said  they  were  to 
suffer  lightly. 

But  it  may  be  said,  all  this  is  not  the  point 
at  issue;  we  all  agree  that  the  wicked  will 
suffer,  but  some  of  us  contend  that  this  suffer- 
ing is  everlasting  and  some  that  it  is  not.  To 
this  the  full  and  complete  answer  is  that  the 
Scriptures  do  not  didactically  state  whether 
the  suffering  of  the  wicked  will  be  endless  or 
not.  This  is  proved  to  common  sense  by  the 
very  fact  that  the  controversy  over  this  point 
has  been  so  long  waged.  And  as  there  is  no 
criterion  by  which  to  settle  religious  con- 
troversy except  the  Scriptures,  and  as  this 
dispute  hinges  upon  differing  interpretations 
of  the  Scriptures,  there  is  very  little  prospect 
of  its  ceasing,  unless  it  dies  out  from  sheer 
exhaustion.^  In  short,  we  do  not  know 
whether  the  wicked  will  persist  in  sin  and  sin's 
inevitable  misery  forever,  and  God  never 
intended  to  tell  us. 

It  is  a  great  fault  with  many  that  they 
think  it  an  evidence  of  weakness  to  say,  "I 
do  not  know,"  whereas,  it  is  as  much  a  sign 
of  accurate  thought  to  clearly  see  what  it  is 
that  you  do  not  know,  as  it  is  to  see  what  it  is 

'  As  John  Fiske  says,  upon  another  subject:  "It  is  not  that 
the  question  which  once  so  sorely  puzzled  men  has  ever  been  set- 
tled, but  that  it  has  been  outgrown."— Destiny  of  Man,  p.  i6. 

300 


HELL 

you  do  know.  Many  think  they  must  either 
believe  or  disbelieve  every  point  in  religion; 
and  as  a  consequence  they  range  themselves 
upon  one  side  of  every  question,  as  baptism, 
or  bodily  resurrection,  or  eternal  punishment, 
and  make  up  in  partisan  loyalty  and  contro- 
versial zeal  what  they  lack  in  real  information/ 
For,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  we  are  called  on  to 
believe  only  what  is  so  plainly  revealed  that 
we  know  what  it  means.  Belief  without  intel- 
ligence is  intellectual  prostitution;  it  is  not 
belief,  it  is  blind  mental  partisanship.  As  for 
what  is  not  revealed  we  are  not  called  upon 
either  to  believe  or  disbelieve;  we  are,  if  we 
wish  to  be  honest,  to  say  frankly  we  do  not 
know,  and  to  hold  our  judgment  in  suspense 
awaiting  reliable  information.  This  is  the 
kind  of  agnosticism  Christian  people  ought  to 
cultivate;  without  it  our  sincerity  will  always 
be  justly  suspected. 

Those,  therefore,  who  say  they  believe  the 
wicked  will  persist  forever  in  evil,  are  wise 
above  what  is  written.  And  yet  one  does  not 
feel  like  utterly  condemning  this  class,  because 
the  motive  of  their  belief  is  a  just  and  good 
motive.  It  springs  not  from  cruelty,  nor  is  it 
because  they  are  fond  of  their  belief,  but  it 
arises  from  the  profound  conviction  of  the 
exceeding  sinfulness  of  sin;  they  do  not  wish 

*  In  the  same  way  they  also  take  up  political  beliefs. 
301 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

in  any  slightest  degree  to  countenance  the 
heresy  that  a  man  can  be  wicked  and  ever  be 
anything  else  than  unhappy.  Their  belief, 
then,  receives  the  strength  of  their  whole 
consent,  not  because  God  has  so  plainly 
revealed  this  point,  but  because  they  fear  the 
consequences  of  any  other  belief,  as  they  are 
under  the  mistaken  impression  that  if  they 
do  not  believe  this  they  ;«z/j/ disbelieve  it,  not 
perceiving  that  their  true  position  is  to  simply 
say  they  do  not  know. 

But  there  are  few  greater  errors  than  to 
allow  our  belief  in  the  truth  to  be  in  any  wise 
shaped  by  our  hope  or  fears  of  the  conse- 
quences of  the  truth.  This  is  quite  sure  to 
lead  us  astray.  It  is,  really,  a  subtle  doubt 
as  to  the  morality  of  truth  itself,  and  as  such 
it  is  a  doubt  of  God's  goodness;  for  God  is 
truth.  It  is  putting  out  our  hand  to  stay  the 
ark.  It  is  presumptuous;  and  when  we  come 
squarely  to  look  at  it,  it  is  absurd.  For  the 
consequences  of  truth  are  not  our  affair;  they 
are  God's  concern.  All  we  are  to  do  is  to 
ascertain  the  truth  as  nearly  as  we  can,  and, 
having  found  out  what  is  truth,  then  to  be- 
lieve it,  knowing  well  that  it  is  good.  Truth 
does  not  need  our  assistance.  We  are  not  to 
fly,  with  our  rash  and  unfounded  self-made 
beliefs,  to  the  aid  of  the  eternal  truth.  There- 
fore, whatever  may  be  the  effect,  let  us  man- 
302 


HELL 

fully  say  we  know  not,  when  we  do  know 
not;  and  let  us  further  assure  our  hearts  that 
the  consequences  of  leaving  this  matter  unre- 
vealed  will  surely  be  good^  or  else  God  would 
not  have  left  it  so.  '*He  doeth  all  things 
well." 

The  converse  is  equally  true.  Those  who 
insist  that  the  wicked  shall  all  be  gathered 
into  heaven  are  also  wise  above  what  is  writ- 
ten. The  Scriptures  say  not  so;  and  they 
have  elevated  an  inference  of  their  own  mind 
up  to  the  level  of  God's  revelation.  Just  like 
the  other  class  they,  too,  are  rushing  to  the 
defe7ise  of  God,  as  though  He  needed  defense. 
As  the  others  think  they  vindicate  God's  jus- 
tice, so  these  think  they  vindicate  God's  love. 
Surely  both  these  parties  are  like  Job's 
friends,  of  whom  it  is  written:  *'Then  the 
Lord  answered  Job  out  of  the  whirlwind, 
and  said:  Who  is  this  that  darkeneth  counsel 
by  words  without  knowledge?  Gird  up  thy 
loins  now  like  a  man,  and  answer  thou  Me; 
where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  foundations 
of  the  earth?  He  that  reproveth  God,  let 
him  answer  it!"  ^  God  certainly  designed  the 
future  for  all  men,  both  good  and  bad,  to  be 
hidden,  as  far  as  place,  duration,  and  circum- 
stance are  concerned;  and  He  intended  only 
to  make  known  the  general  law  that  the  results 

*  Job  xxxviii.  1-4;  xl.  2. 

303 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

of  the  life  of  Christ  will  be  glorious  beyond 
dreams,  and  the  results  of  rejecting  Christ 
will  be  the  most  terrible  thing  that  can  pos- 
sibly befall.  And  who  are  we  that  we  "add 
to  the  words  of  the  Book,"  ^  for  fear  enough 
is  not  written? 

This  view,  that  of  candid  ignorance  upon 
the  ultimate  fate  of  men,  is  perfectly  con- 
sistent with  the  general  order  of  Providence 
as  we  observe  it  in  this  life.  If  that  order  is  to 
be  reversed,  we- may  reasonably  expect  to  find 
that  fact  unmistakably  declared;  but  we  do 
not  find  this.  No  man  knows  what  the  mor- 
row will  bring  forth. 

"  Heaven  hides  from  all  the  book  of  fate, 
All  but  the  page  prescribed,  the  present  date." 

It  is  under  such  conditions  God  created  man ; 
intending  him  to  use  the  present  and  to  leave 
the  future  in  his  Maker's  hands.  The  laws 
which  govern  the  future  He  makes  plain,  as 
that  goodness  brings  future  peace,  and  evil 
future  trouble;  but  the  kind  of  peace  or 
trouble,  the  circumstances  or  the  exact  duration^ 
He  does  not  disclose.  Such  is  the  nature  of 
His  moral  government.  And  why  think  we 
it  will  be  all  different  beyond  the  grave?  We 
have  a  right  to  infer  that  it  will  be  the  same ; 
the  burden  of  proof  rests  upon  those  who 
insist  that  it  will  be  changed. 

*  Rev.  xxii.  i8. 

304 


HELL 

We  find,  then,  that  the  New  Testament 
reveals  a  fact^  which  is  figuratively  stated  by 
Christ,  and  purposely  so  stated  by  Him  as  to 
preclude  common  sense  from  taking  Him 
literally.  Christ's  method  was  story  and  pic- 
ture. Paul's  method  was  round,  downright, 
didactic  statement;  and  hence  in  Paul  we  find 
the  fact  definitely  stated  to  which  Christ 
poetically  referred — to  wit,  that  "God  will 
render  unto  them  that  do  not  obey  the  truth, 
indignation  and  wrath,  tribulation  and 
anguish;  and  to  every  soul  that  doeth  good, 
glory,  honor,  and  peace, "  ^  and  that  He  will 
do  this  "in  the  day  of  revelation  of  the  right- 
eous judgment  of  God."  That  does  not 
necessarily  mean  the  commonly  held  day  of 
judgment,  but  the  day  or  time  when  the 
righteous  character  of  God's  arrangements 
appear j"^  for  now  wicked  men  often  seem  happy 
and  good  men  wretched.  His  laws  seem  so 
unequal  that  many  a  fool  thinks  to  be  suc- 
cessful by  defying  them,  but  by  and  by  it  is 
absolutely  certain  that  they  will  see  that  sin 
brings  woe,  and  goodness  joy,  and  that  is  "the 
day  of  the  revelation  of  God's  righteous  judg- 
ment.'"    When    that    is    to    occur    no    one 

»  Rom.  ii.  6-g. 

^  "Exposure,  detection,  disgrace;  this  is  the  worst  part  of 
punishment.  But  what  can  any  exposure  be  in  this  world,  to  the 
revelations  which  may  come  hereafter  when  the  secrets  of  all 
hearts  shall  be  revealed?"— James  Freeman  Clarke, 

^  Rom.  ii.  5. 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

knows,  *'no,  not  even  the  angels  of  God,  but 
only  the  Father."^ 

All  along  the  course  of  time  men  have  been 
setting  dates  for  God,  and  He  has  been  dis- 
appointing them.  If  there  is  anything  mani- 
fest in  sacred  history  it  is  this  law  that  God 
will  bring  His  servants  to  joy  and  reward  and 
the  wicked  to  confusion,  but  also  that  He 
specifically  reserves  the  method  and  time  of  so 
doing  i.i  His  own  counsel.^  Abraham,  Moses, 
and  the  other  Old  Testament  saints,  ''all 
these  died,  not  having  received  the  prom- 
ises" ^ — that  is,  the  promises  were  not  fulfilled 
as  they  thought  they  would  be,  but  in  a  better 
way.  And  the  apostles  and  early  Christians 
fully  expected  Christ'?  bodily  return  to  earth, 
but  while  Christ  has  returned  as  a  spiritual 
power,  they  were  certainly  mistaken  if  they 
believed  that  He  would  return  in  bodily  glory 
in  their  day.* 

Let  us  therefore  leave  the  places  and  other 
details  of  the  future  life  where  Jesus  left 
them— in  God's  hands.  To  say  it  is  not 
enough  to  let  the  matter  remain  so  indefinite 
is  to  distrust  God.  "Take  no  thought  for 
the  morrow. "  Live  right  to-day  and  God  is 
pledged  for  a  bright  to-morrow.     But  it  may 

'  Matt,  xxiv.  36. 

«  See  the  case  of  Jonah— Jonah  ii.  10;  iii.  i. 
3  Heb.  xi.  39. 

*  F.  W.  Robertson's  sermon  on  "The  Illusiveness  of  Life 
beautifully  expands  this  thought. 
306 


HELL 

be  sard,  the  future  states  are  great  incentives 
to  right  lives.  That  they  are  such  is  true; 
yet  it  is  not  the  fancies^  but  \.\\^  facts  of  those 
states  that  are /rd7/^r  incentives;  th:  facts  are 
woe  and  joy,  the  fancies  are  the  place,  time, 
and  circumstances  of  that  woe  and  joy. 

A  similar  question  is  that  of  whether  the 
heathen  will  be  "saved"  or  not.  This  ques- 
tion is  half  removed  when  we  recall  the  Scrip- 
ture sense  of  salvation,  which  is  not  that  of 
taking  a  man  to  a  place  called  heaven.  The 
other  half  of  the  question  is  removed  when 
we  remember  that  God's  design  in  revelation 
was  not  at  all  to  impart  any  information 
except  such  as  bears  upon  the  character  and 
fate  of  those  to  who7?i  the  Bible  is  addressed. 
Now,  the  Bible  is  addressed,  of  course,  only 
to  its  readers;  it  has  absolutely  nothing  to  say 
of  the  fate  of  others.  It  tells  me  my  duty 
and  destiny;  and  when  I  look  within  it  to  find 
the  duty  and  destiny  of  any  one  else  it  only 
says:  "What  is  that  to  thee?  Follow  thou 
Me!"  ^  In  other  words,  the  Book  of  God  does 
not  impart  purely  speculative  information; 
never  gratifies  mere  curiosity.  The  fate  of 
the  heathen  in  the  next  world  is  distinctly 
none  of  our  affair;  God  will  attend  to  them. 
Those  who  say  the  heathen  will  all  be  damned 
because  they  did  not  believe,   having  never 

»  John  xxi.  22. 

^•307 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

heard,  and  also  those  who  say  the  heathen 
will  all  be  saved  because  God  is  good,  are 
alike  wise  above  what  is  written.  The  true 
belief  is  that  we  do  not  know  what  will  take 
place  between  them  and  their  Father  here- 
after; but  we  do  know  that  their  joy  will  be 
increased  to  an  infinite  degree  both  in  this 
and  the  next  life  if  we  impart  to  them  this 
grace  of  God's  transforming  influence  we  have 
received.  The  "nerve  of  missions,"  their 
motive,  is  not  to  hasten  to  save  lost  souls  from 
the  wrath  of  an  angry  God,  but  rather  to 
hasten  to  impart  unto  them  eternal  life,  be- 
cause we  love  them  as  Christ  loved  us. 

The  case  stands  very  much  the  same  with 
the  dispute  concerning  a  second  probation. 
Neither  those  who  contend  for  this  nor  those 
who  deny  it  can  find  a  clear  line  of  Scriptural 
teaching  substantiating  their  position.  And 
from  this  it  is  manifest  that  God  did  not 
intend  for  us  to  know.  If  He  had,  He  would 
have  told  us.  The  importance  of  the  present 
life  is  by  Holy  Writ  impressed  upon  us  by  the 
fact  that  the  future  is  unknown.  That  is 
God's  way.  Deeming  that  insufficient,  we 
make  haste  to  add  our  conclusions  and  infer- 
ences to  the  body  of  revelation;  therefore  to 
our  theological  fray  has  been  "added  all  the 
plagues  written  in  the  Book."  ^ 

»  Rev.  xxii.  18, 

30S 


HELL 

But  the  view  here  stated  will  be  met  by  two 
protests.  One  class  of  persons  will  say: 
*'What!  shall  a  man  be  given  to  understand 
that  he  may  have  hope,  if  he  dies  in  his  sins?" 
This  class  is  properly  jealous  for  God's  justice, 
and  suspicious  of  any  form  of  doctrine  that 
may  contain  the  least  implication  that  the  re- 
jection of  Christ  is  not  a  fatal  and  dangerous 
thing.  The  other  class  will  say:  "What!  shall 
we  mourn  by  the  cofifin  of  our  friend,  who 
never  had  the  Gospel  strongly,  attractively, 
and  clearly  put  to  him,  as  for  one  eternally 
damned?"  This  class  is  properly  jealous  for 
God's  kindness.     Let  us  answer  both. 

And  first:  Is  there  any  ground  of  hope  for 
one  who  dies  in  his  sins?  The  supposition  is 
that  if  such  hope  is  entertained,  it  will  lead 
men  presumptuously  to  put  off  accepting 
Christ  until  the  next  life.  Now  we  must  be 
again  reminded  that  death  has  no  moral  sig- 
nificance. Death  as  an  event  eternally  set- 
tling and  irrevocably  fixing  the  moral  condi- 
tion of  man  is  not  clearly  and  unmistakably 
taught  in  the  Scriptures.  The  idea  is  an  out- 
growth of  that  artificial  Latin  theology  that 
made  as  much  of  the  'Mast  things";  exalting 
to  an  unwarranted  significance  the  "day  of 
judgment"  and  heaven  as  a  place.  It  was 
not  the  idea  of  Jesus  and  the  apostles  to  use 
the  fear  of  death  as  an  inducement  for  men  to 
309 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

accept  the  Gospel.  They  taught  it  is  fatal  for 
a  man  to  be  in  his  sins,  to  live  in  them.  If  to 
die  in  sin  was  to  be  irrevocably  lost,  that  cer- 
tainly is  a  fact  of  most  supreme  and  horrible 
importance,  and  Jesus  and  Paul  could  in  no 
wise  be  excused  for  not  stating  it  over  and 
over  again.  But  they  did  not  so  state  it;  we 
gather  the  doctrine  from  their  allusions^  and 
from  single  texts  invariably  selected  from  their 
course  of  argument  or  narrative  about  some- 
thing else.  For  instance,  the  parable  of  the 
ten  virgins^  is  explicitly  said  to  relate  to  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  parable  in 
Luke  where  those  who  knocked  were  refused 
admittance^  contains  no  hint  that  the  shut- 
ting of  the  door  is  death;  and  only  in  par- 
ables does  this  idea^  occur  even  this  much, 
never  in  Christ's  didactic  teaching.  The 
author  of  Hebrews  says:  "As  it  is  appointed 
unto  man  once  to  die,  and  after  that  the 
judgment";*  but  the  gist  of  his  argument  is 
not  that  he  is  proving  that  man  has  only  one 
trial,  but  that  Jesus  as  the  divine  Lamb 
needed  only  once  to  die  in  order  to  perfect 
the  remission  of  sins.     It  is  not  sound  sense 

»  "  Then  shall  the  kingdom  of  heaven  be  likened  unto  ten  vir- 
gins," etc.,  Matt.  XXV.  i. 

»  Luke  xiii.  25-30. 

»  That  is.  the  idea  of  the  time  when  the  punishment  of  the 
wicked  is  to  take  place. 

*  Heb.  ix.  27.  The  gist  of  the  argument,  in  which  this  passage 
occurs,  is:  As  a  man  has  but  one  life,  even  so  he  needs  but  one 
sacrifice  to  purify  that  life. 

310 


HELL 

to  elevate  these  and  similar  illustrations, 
which  are  by-remarks,  into  a  doctrine  of  the 
most  fatal  importance. 

But,  it  will  be  objected,  this  opens  the 
flood-gates  to  presumptuous  sin;  unless  we 
teach  that  death  is  the  fatal  mark  beyond 
which  is  no  chance,  unless  it  is  only  "while 
the  lamp  holds  out  to  burn"  that  "the  vilest 
sinner  may  return,"  the  Gospel  is  simply 
powerless;  the  strongest  motive  is  gone.  To 
which  it  may  be  said  that  this  is  the  wrong 
state  of  mind  entirely  in  which  to  approach 
the  study  of  truth;  we  should  inquire  solely 
what  is  truth,  not  what  will  be  the  effects  of 
truth.  If  the  views  here  given  are  correct 
and  Scriptural,  then  it  is  God  that  we  impeach ; 
if  not  correct,  then  we  should  show  that  they 
are  fiot  Scriptural^  and  not  that  we  think  them 
dangerous. 

But  the  fact  is  that  they  are  not  dangerous. 
The  only  difference  between  the  doctrine  here 
stated  and  that  commonly  held  by  vulgar  the- 
ology is  that  this  doctrine  tends  to  alarm 
the  sinner  by  a  Scriptural  fear  of  entering  the 
future  state  an  alien  from  God  to  face  the 
unknown  consequences  of  his  sins,  which 
the  Scriptures  only  say  will  be  "a  fearful 
thing"  ;  ^  while  that  doctrine  adds  human  infer- 
ences to  divine  fact,  and  seeking  by  adventi- 

1  Heb.  X.  31. 

3" 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

tious  aids  to  frighten  the  sinner,  loses  its  force 
and  brings  itself  into  contempt.  The  one  is 
biblical,  reasonable,  and  germane  to  what  we 
know  of  the  orderly  processes  and  methods  of 
God;  the  other  is  extra-biblical,  unreason- 
able, and  artificial. 

If,  however,  a  sane  view  of  the  Bible  sweeps 
away  the  traditional  pictures  of  Paradise  Lost 
and  Dante's  Inferno,  at  the  same  time  it  de- 
stroys the  unfounded  hope  of  those  who 
*'believe"  in  a  future  probation.  If  God  had 
intended  us  to  know  that  in  the  life  to  come 
we  should  have  another  opportunity,  He  cer- 
tainly would  have  so  stated.  The  Gospel 
plants  no  flag  of  hope  over  a  sinner's  grave. 
If  we  believe  in  a  second  trial,  we  are  believ- 
ing our  own  ideas,  not  God's.  The  dying, 
unrepentant  sinner  who  expects  his  Maker  to 
take  him  into  bliss,  is  trusting  utterly  to  a 
vagary  of  his  own  mind,  and  has  not  one 
promise  of  his  Father  upon  which  to  stand  as 
he  enters  the  unknown  life  beyond. 

So,  then,  we  find  both  parties  wrong  for  the 
same  one  reason ;  they  stand  on  the  same  false 
premise,  conceiving  salvation  to  be  chiefly  an 
affair  after  death,  and  the  sorrow  or  joy  of 
the  soul  then  to  turn  upon  the  place  whither 
they  are  to  go.  Let  us  therefore  erase  all 
these  unfounded  speculations  and  curious 
inquiries,  and  see  if  there  be  not  a  reasonable 
312 


HELL 

idea  of  the  sorrows  of  the  wicked,  see  if  there 
be  not  an  idea  that  harmonizes  both  with 
what  we  here  observe  of  the  operation  of 
natural  law  and  with  the  general  tone  and 
drift  of  the  Scriptures. 

The  nature  of  sin  is  well  known.  It  is  at 
first  pleasant,  but  as  it  progresses  the  pleas- 
ure decreases  and  the  attendant  difficulties 
and  sorrows  increase.  The  human  spirit  is 
so  constructed  that  it  can  be  permanently  and 
increasingly  happy  only  as  it  obeys  the  law  of 
its  being;  that  law  is  that  it  shall  know  God 
and  live  under  His  influence.  The  evil  of  the 
lust  of  the  flesh,  John  says,  is  that  it 
"passes."^  The  soul  is  a  son  of  God,  with 
all  the  eternal  desires  and  boundless  needs  of 
its  Father.  Fed  upon  aught  else  than  God,  it 
writhes  at  length  in  divine  hunger  pains. 
One  does  not  have  to  die  to  be  in  hell.  Grant 
him  five  hundred  years  of  life,  with  unwasting 
powers  of  body  and  mind,  and  he  will  run 
through  the  gamut  of  all  that  earth  can  give 
to  satisfy  within  at  least  one  hundred  years; 
the  last  four  hundred  will  be  more  and  more 
filled  with  ennui,  disgust,  wretchedness,  and 
at  last  a  very  hate  of  life  and  despair  of  joy.^ 
To  insure  perpetual  hunger  deprive  a  man  of 
nutritious  food,  and  so  long  as  he  lives  he  will 

*  "  And  the  world  passeth  away,  and  the  lust  thereof;  but  he 
that  doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth  forever."    i  John  ii.  17. 
'  As  in  the  case  of  Solomon.     See  Eccl.  ii.  i-ii. 

313 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

suffer;  so  pain  will  last  so  long  as  a  soul  is 
deprived  of  God,  after  the  artificial  stimulants 
of  sin's  pleasures  have  lost  their  effect.  Death 
has  nothing  to  do  with  it;  for  as  long  as  the 
soul  lives  apart  from  God,  whether  on  this  or 
another  planet,  it  will  be  wretched.^  If  the 
unrepentant  sinner  is  immortal,  his  sufferings 
will  be  immortal. 

But  when  the  sinner  finds,  in  the  next 
world,  that  he  suffers,  will  ho  not  turn  to  God 
for  pardon,  and  will  God  not  forgive  him? 
In  answer  to  this,  we  can  only  say  that  there 
is  nothing  in  the  Bible  by  which  we  are  war- 
ranted in  believing  that  God  will  not  freely 
pardon  at  any  time  any  one  who  asks,  that 
He  would  not  even  pardon  Satan  were  he  to 
repent.  But  we  must  not  forget  what  God' s 
pai'don  is;  it  is  not  a  removal  from  His  books 
of  a  sentence  against  us,  not  an  artificial  and 
statutory  thing;  but  it  is  His  entrance  into  a 
man  by  His  influence  and  thus  cleansing  him, 
in  which  work  the  man  must  be  wiaing  and 
cooperate.  And  the  reason  why  there  is  no 
ground  to  believe  the  wicked  will  turn  to  God 
in  the  life  to  come  is  not  the  artificial  fixity 
of  state  imparted  by  death,  but  it  is  the  nature 
of  man  himself.  It  is  not  the  unwillingness 
of  God,  but  the  character  of  the  sinner  that 

^  *'  Fecisti  nos  ad  te,  Domine;  et  inquietum  est  cor  nostrum 
donee  requiescat  in  te."— Augustine  (Thou  hast  made  us  for 
Thyself,  Lord;  and  our  heart  is  restless  until  it  rests  in  Thee.) 

3H 


HELL 

holds  no  hope  of  future  pardon.  For  sin  is 
cumulative  in  its  nature.  Doing  one  wrong 
prepares  us  to  do  another.  Rejecting  God's 
influence  makes  us  more  prone  still  to  reject 
it.  It  is  of  the  very  nature  of  sin  that  it 
** waxes  worse  and  worse.  "  ^ 

We  find  this  made  plain  by  what  we  know 
of  wicked  men  here.  Go  among  the  depraved 
and  criminal  classes;  you  will  find  misery 
enough,  and  squalor,  wretchedness,  and 
disease;  but  do  these  things  operate  to  lead 
them  to  a  pure  life?  Do  they  make  their  vic- 
tims fly  to  the  company  of  the  good  and  pure? 
On  the  contrary,  they  breed  only  further 
despair  and  transgression,  and  morbidly 
inflame  the  propensities  to  evil;  and  these 
classes  even  give  their  sufferings  as  an  excuse 
for  their  crimes^  instead  of  looking  upon  them 
as  reasons  for  forsaking  crimes.^  There  is 
nothing  redemptive  in  sin.  Stripes  and  woe 
never  regenerated  a  rogue,  although  they 
may  have  made  him  more  careful  as  to  the 
methods  of  his  rascality.  If  such  be  the 
effects  of  evil  and  evil's  punishment  here^  how 
can  we  look  for  any  different  effects  hereafter? 

What  does  regenerate  a  bad  man?  Love, 
hope,  self-respect;  and  these  impulses  are 
aroused    in    him    by    God    in    Christ   and    in 

*  2  Tim.  iii.  13. 

^  The  bad  heart  produces  bad  surroundings  which  in  turn  tend 
to  further  deprave  the  heart. 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

Christly  men.  Now,  the  almost  inevitable 
consequence  of  sin  is  to  destroy  the  very 
belief  in  purity  and  goodness.  He  doubts 
such  things  exist;  or  if  he  believes  in  them, 
he  does  not  believe  they  can  ever  reach  him- 
self. Thus  it  is  that  the  continuance  in  sin 
tends  to  block  the  only  avenue  of  escape. 
The  influence  of  God  alone  can  save  him;  he 
closes  against  that  influence  more  every  day; 
and  there  is  no  ground  whatever  for  believing 
that  in  the  next  world  he  will  be  different  from 
what  he  is  in  this.  If  here  he  looks  on  Chris- 
tian men  and  pure  women  as  either  hypocrites, 
or  uninteresting,  colorless  weaklings,  doubt- 
less he  will  there  continue  in  the  same  persua- 
sion. Therefore,  we  are  justified  in  thinking 
it  extremely  probable  that  the  man  who  per- 
sists in  sins  here  until  death  will  persist  in 
them  after  death,  and  of  course  his  sufferings 
will  last  as  long  as  his  sin. 

The  two  future  states  of  joy  and  of  misery 
do  not  depend  upon  an  arbitrary  decree  of 
God,  given  for  no  reason  that  we  can  see 
except  His  own  will,  but  they  are  consequent 
upon  the  very  nature  of  the  case.  The  law 
of  the  punishment  of  sin  is  not  a  law  which  is 
xi^liX.  simply  because  God  says  so,  but  it  is  a 
law  just  as  gravitation  is  a  law,  working  in 
the  constitution  and  nature  of  things.  Do  we 
complain  because  it  hurts  us  when  we  put  our 
316 


HELL 

hand  in  the  fire,  or  that  no  one  believes  us 
after  we  have  told  many  lies?  These  laws  are 
not  whimsical  verdicts  of  a  great  judge,  but 
flow  naturally  along  the  course  of  reason;  so 
likewise  flows  the  law  that  he  who  has  the  life 
of  the  Son  of  God  in  him  ascends  from  glory 
to  glory  in  his  career,  here  and  hereafter, 
while  he  who  has  not  this  life  descends  more 
and  more  into  the  deeps  of  wretchedness, 
emptiness,  and  distress. 

Why,  then,  did  not  God  make  all  men  so 
they  could  be  no  otherwise  than  happy? 
Simply  because  He  is  good.  To  make  His 
laws  so  that  a  bad  man  can  forever  be  happy, 
would  show  Him  to  be  a  bad  God.  A  moral 
being,  a  good  man,  could  not  look  up  to  such 
a  God  as  his  ideal.  The  very  nature  of 
thought  implies  that  if  obedience  and  truth 
are  to  gain  happiness,  disobedience  and  wrong 
must  merit  unhappiness,  else  there  is  no  moral 
distinction  between  the  two.  If  both  good 
and  evil  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God,  then 
that  kingdom  is  not  a  moral  one.  To  efface 
the  effects  of  good  and  evil  is  to  efface  all 
good  and  evil  themselves,  and  also  to  efface 
the  distinction  between  them. 

But  why  did  God  make  men  capable  of  evil, 
and  so  of  suffering?  If  He  made  them  ca- 
pable of  being  sons  of  God,  He  must  have 
made  them  also  capable  of  refusing  to  be 
317 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

sons.  If  God  made  man  at  all,  a  being  able 
to  love  Him  of  his  own  free  will,  it  follows 
by  the  very  nature  of  thought  that  He  must 
have  made  man  able  to  refuse  to  love  Him. 
Otherwise  man  would  simply  have  been  a 
machine  or  a  beast;  for  if  he  moves  by  will, 
he  must  be  able  to  refuse  by  will. 

But  will  God  allow  the  major  part  of  the 
race  to  thus  persist  in  evil?  To  think  so 
would  be  to  limit  the  power  of  God's  influ- 
ence. As  there  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of 
sin  to  warrant  us  in  believing  the  impenitent 
sinner  will  ever  be  converted  hereafter;  so 
also  there  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of  6^^^ and' 
His  limitless  resources  to  warrant  us  in  believ- 
ing that  a  large  number  of  His  sons  will  con- 
tinue forever  in  sin  and  alienation  from  Him. 
But  we  must  always  bear  in  mind  that  both  of 
these  convictions  are  from  our  oivn  reasoning — 
what  God  will  actually  do  we  must  leave  to 
Him,  for  He  has  not  chosen  to  tell  us. 

Above  all  things  we  should  never  forget 
that  there  is  no  spirit  of  retaliation  in  God 
corresponding  to  our  own  feeling  represented 
by  that  word.  He  is  always  and  ever  kind, 
just,  and  forbearing.  The  Old  Testament 
figures  of  speech  of  God's  vengeance,  His 
whetting  His  sword.  His  fury,  and  the  like, 
are  v/idened  and  elevated  by  Christ's  teach- 
ings and  His  personality,  which  show  that 
318 


HELL 

while  the  old  prophets  correctly  apprehended 
\.\v^  fact  of  the  woe  awaiting  the  wicked,  they 
did  not  understand  the  spirit  of  that  fact. 
We  must  clear  away  from  our  minds,  along 
with  much  other  theological  rubbish,  the 
notion  that  God  has  the  slightest  vindictive- 
ness  in  His  disposition.  When  it  is  said  He 
will  punish  the  wicked  we  know  that  He  can- 
not inflict  injury  upon  them  merely  to  gratify 
a  passion  of  resentment.^  We  know  this,  be- 
cause surely  Jesus  was  a  perfect  representa- 
tion of  God,  and  in  Jesus  we  find  no  such 
feeling.  He  had  that  spirit  which  beareth 
all  things,  hopeth  all  things,  and  endureth  all 
things,  which  returns  good  for  evil.  If  He 
spake  harshly  to  the  Pharisees,  He  only 
warned  them  of  the  fate  they  were  bringing 
upon  themselves^  and  never  showed  the  slight- 
est sign  of  bringing  injury  upon  them  in  return 
for  their  treatment  of  Him.^  To  suppose  that 
He  was  acting  as  He  did,  all  the  while  intend- 
ing some  day  to  return  and  pay  back  His  per- 
secutors in  full  vengeance,  rejoicing  in  their 
burnings  because  they  had  offended  Him;  to 
suppose  Him  praying  upon  the  cross  for  the 
Father  to  forgive  them,  and  yet  harboring  a 

*  Vengeance,  ekdikesis,  means  primarily  vindication.  God 
will  show  to  the  sinner  and  to  all  that  the  apparent  prosperity  of 
evil  was  a  delusion  and  a  snare. 

'  The  point  is,  that  while,  as  the  Mover  of  universal  law.  He 
will  bring  upon  them  calamity,  yet  He  will  not  do  so  as  a  Person 
seeking  to  sate  His  ire. 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MO  RROW 

plan  of  future  retaliation — such  suppositions 
have  only  to  be  put  into  words  for  us  to  see 
how  absurd  they  are.  When  the  Scriptures 
speak  of  divine  "wrath"  and  ''punishment," 
these  terms  must  be  understood  in  the  full 
light  of  all  that  Jesus  said  and  did  and  was. 
"No  Scripture  is  of  private  interpretation"; 
that  is,  all  texts  must  be  read  in  their  relation 
to  the  whole.  And,  above  all,  no  one  can 
understand  the  Bible  without  reading  it  in  the 
spirit  of  Jesus.  No  text  must  be  received 
apart  from  the  light  His  face  sheds  upon  it. 
His  character  and  personality  are  a  qualifica- 
tion upon  every  word  of  the  Book. 

This  being  true  we  are  sure  that  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  wicked  will  in  the  next  world  be 
viewed  by  the  Deity  in  no  spirit  of  gratifica- 
tion arising  from  glutted  resentment;  but  He 
will  view  them  there,  as  Jesus  did  here,  with 
infinite  sorrow  and  sympathy.  His  judgment 
will  be  just,  tender,  and  merciful.  If  any 
suffer,  it  will  be  because  for  them  suffering  is 
the  best,  wisest,  most  beneficent  thing  that 
can  happen.  God  does  not  hate  sinners;  He 
loves  them,  and  will  love  them  to  the  end.  If 
there  be  souls  in  hell,  He  loves  them  also;  for 
His  love  plays  upon  all.  If  they  continue 
there  in  sin  and  sin's  torment,  it  will  be  only 
because  His  infinite  and  ever-present  loving 

»  2  Pet.  i.  20. 

320 


HELL 

Spirit  can  find  no  opening  in  hearts  shut  and 
barred  against  Him.  Over  against  the  abode 
of  lost  souls  stands  not  a  furious  and  venge- 
ful Monarch;  but  a  pitiful  Father,  echoing 
His  own  cry  upon  earth:  "O  Jerusalem,  Jeru- 
salem, thou  that  killest  the  prophets  and 
stonest  them  which  are  sent  unto  thee,  how 
often  would  I  have  gathered  thy  children  to- 
gether, even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens 
under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not!" 

The  sum  of  what  has  been  here  said,  there- 
fore, is  that  God  has  simply  revealed  that  the 
reception  of  the  Christ-Spirit's  influence  into 
the  soul  sets  it  upon  an  order  of  life  increas- 
ingly joyous  and  full  of  glory,  and  that  the 
neglect  or  refusal  to  receive  this  influence 
results  in  increasing  emptiness,  distress,  and 
woe.  Whether  or  not  the  wicked  will  eter- 
nally continue  in  sin,  and  hence  in  sin's  sor- 
row; where  they  will  go  to;  what  is  the 
nature  of  their  torment;  how  long  it  will  con- 
tinue; whether  or  not  they  will  repent  and  be 
saved  after  death ;  whether  they  are  inherently 
immortal  or  will  eventually  be  annihilated — 
all  these  are  speculations^  and  form  no  part  of 
the  distinct  divine  revelation;  we  may  think 
as  we  choose  about  them,  provided  we  do  no 
elevate  our  opinions  into  divine  decrees. 
And,  mainly,  whatever  sorrow  comes  upon  the 
evil  ones  is  the  direct,  natural  result  of  their 
321 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

own  deeds  and  character,  and  not  an  arbitrary 
or  statutory  infliction  of  penalty  by  an 
incensed  Judge. 

When  we  penetrate  into  the  reason  and 
ground  of  this  revelation,  and  ask  why  God 
did  not  clearly  show  us  the  heavenly  mansions 
and  horrid  pits  the  good  and  bad  respectively 
are  to  inhabit,  we  shall  see  that  this  reason 
and  ground  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  motive 
power  by  which  the  Gospel  proposes  to  save 
men  is  not  the  hopes  and  fears  of  rewards  and 
punishments,  but  God's  own  personal  influ- 
ence. If  heaven  and  hell  were  to  be  our 
incentives,  surely  God  would  have  set  the  one 
shining  invitingly  in  the  sky  and  the  other 
burning  terribly  and  openly  upon  earth,  where 
we  could  all  see  them.  Why  has  He  removed 
them  to  the  distance,  veiled  them,  only 
alluded  to  them  in  figures  of  speech?  The 
profound  reason  is  that  what  is  done  for  pay 
can  only  affect  conduct,  but  not  character. 
Expectation  of  reward  or  fear  of  stripes  may 
regulate,  but  cannot  develop  man.  Now,  as 
we  have  said,  the  manifest  intent  of  God  is 
not  to  coerce  us  into  any  form  of  conduct, 
else  His  whole  dealings  with  mankind  are  a 
stupendous  failure.  Neither  is  it  to  rescue 
us  out  of  one  place  into  another  place,  for  if 
this  is  His  plan,  it  has  succeeded  poorly,  for 
only  a  small  fragment  of  the  race  has  been 
322 


HELL 

saved  in  the  orthodox  sense.  But  the  reason- 
able supposition  is  that  His  design  is  to  de- 
velop, uplift,  and  finally  ennoble  men  to  be 
His  sons;  and  toward  this  end  all  history 
tends. 

"  One  God,  one  law,  one  element, 
And  one  divine,  far-off  event 

To  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 

Now,  this  sort  of  an  object  can  only  be 
attained  by  a  change  in  the  whole  character 
of  man.  His  very  nature  must  be  regenerated. 
This,  in  turn,  can  only  be  accomplished  by  a 
potent  influence  —  to  wit,  the  influence  of 
God.  If,  every  time  we  sin,  bodily  pain  would 
strike  us  at  once,  we  would  develop  a  right 
instinct,  but  not  a  right  character.  When  we 
sin  we  see  a  possibility  of  temporary  pleasure 
in  it,  and  we  are  thrown  back  upon  our  prin- 
ciple and  intelligent  reflection  to  find  the 
power  that  shall  restrain  us  from  it.  Because 
the  Ruler  of  men  allows  the  wicked  to  prosper 
and  the  righteous  to  suffer  for  a  time,  drives 
mankind  to  discover  and  act  upon  the  great 
underlying  laws  and  principles  of  action.  By 
so  doing  we  are  not  trained  to  be  oxen,  keep- 
ing the  road  because  we  know  that  to  turn 
aside  means  a  blow  of  the  whip,  but  we  are 
educated  to  rely  upon  ourselves.  Thus  the 
individual  conscience  is  developed,  for  we 
would  need  no  conscience  if  rewards  and  pun- 
323 


THE    RELIGION    OF    TO-MORROW 

ishments  were  immediate  and  certain.  The 
will  is  trained,  for  an  open  and  apparent  hell 
and  heaven  would  render  the  will  unnecessary. 
The  judgment  is  strengthened,  for  the  judg- 
ment would  have  no  scope  if  calamity  came 
swift  and  sure  for  every  misdeed.  Therefore 
we  perceive  that  the  v^xy  perplexity  we  so  cry 
out  against,  the  osteiisible  frequent  success  of 
evil  and  apparent  failure  of  good  temporarily, 
is  purposely  ordained  by  a  Father  who  would 
raise  up  sons  to  be  manly  and  self-reliant. 
"Thy  gentleness  hath  made  me  great.  "  And 
we  further  perceive  that  the  veiling  of  the 
future  state  is  of  His  design  who  would  have 
us  learn  to  do  right  because  we  have  right 
characters,  and  not  because  of  hope  and  fear. 
Hope  and  fear,  to  be  sure,  are  partial  aids, 
and  so  the  objects  of  hope  and  fear  diVQ,  par- 
tially revealed;  but  they  are  not  to  be  the 
principal  motive,  and  so  the  future  states  are 
not  explicitly  shown. 

The  chief,  main,  dominant  motive  for  right 
life  is  to  be  the  presence  of  God  in  our  midst, 
the  influence  of  His  personality  upon  us.  So, 
also,  the  chief  agent  to  keep  us  from  sin  is  to 
be  the  revulsion  toward  and  hatred  of  sin 
because  of  its  antipathy  toward  God  and  that 
character  which  God's  personal  influence 
works  in  us.  If  heaven  and  hell  were  set 
forth  in  the  Book  of  God's  revelation  as  dis- 
324 


HELL 

tinctly  as  they  are  drawn  by  traditional  the- 
ology, they  would  largely  interfere  with  and 
set  aside  the  operation  of  God's  influence. 

Therefore  we  conclude,  that  as  God's  pur- 
pose is  to  develop  His  sons  into  the  right  kind 
of  life,  and  not  to  drive  nor  bribe  slaves  into 
a  certain  future  city,  He  has  declined  the  use 
of  rewards  and  punishments  as  a  main  incen- 
tive, revealing  them  only  as  general  divine 
laws,  and  in  Jesus  Christ  has  substituted,  as  a 
better  motive,  His  own  personal  influence. 
Reward  and  punishment  constitute  the  very 
heart  and  motive  of  the  law,  but  of  the  Gos- 
pel Jesus  Christ  is  the  heart  and  motive — 
Jesus  Christ,  *'who  is  made,  not  after  the  law 
of  a  carnal  commandment,  but  after  the  power 
of  an  endless  life.  For  the  former  command- 
ment has  been  disannulled  because  of  its 
impotency  and  unprofitableness,  for  it  devel- 
oped nothing  to  perfection;  but  the  bringing 
in  of  a  better  hope  did,  by  the  which  we  draw 
nigh  unto  God.  For  if  that  first  covenant  (of 
rewards  and  punishments)  had  been  effective, 
a  second  would  have  been  unnecessary.  But, 
finding  fault  with  the  former.  He  saith.  Behold 
the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord,  when  I  will 
make  a  new  covenant,  enter  upon  different 
relations,  with  My  people;  not  according  to 
the  covenant  that  I  made  with  them  of  old, 
when  I  led  them  out  of  Egypt,  because  they 
325 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

continued  not  in  My  covenant.  But  this  is 
the  new  covenant,  saith  the  Lord;  I  will  put 
My  laws  into  their  mind,  and  write  them  in 
their  hearts,  and  I  will  be  to  them  an  imma- 
nent God  and  they  shall  be  to  Me  a  people. 
And  they  shall  not  teach  every  man  his  neigh- 
bor, and  every  man  his  brother,  saying.  Know 
the  Lord ;  for  they  shall  all  know  Me,  from 
the  least  to  the  greatest.  The  law  and  its 
motives  were  a  schoolmaster  to  bring  us  to 
Christ;  but  now  that  He  is  come,  we  are  no 
longer  under  a  schoolmaster.  Stand  fast, 
therefore,  in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ 
hath  made  us  free,  and  be  not  entangled  again 
with  the  yoke  of  bondage."^ 

*  Heb.  vii.  i6,  19;  viii.  7-11 ;  Gal.  iii.  24,  25;  v.  i. 


326 


SUGGESTIONS 

Most  theological  disputes  are  settled  by  subsidence. 

It  was  not  the  purpose  of  the  Bible  to  reveal  the 
ultimate  eternity,  but  the  immediate  eternity. 

It  is  as  much  a  sign  of  intellectual  accuracy  to  see 
clearly  what  it  is  that  you  do  not  know,  as  it  is  to  see 
what  it  is  you  do  know. 

Partisan  zeal  is  usually  in  inverse  proportion  to  in- 
formation. 

It  is  as  much  our  duty  to  refuse  either  to  believe  or 
to  disbelieve  what  is  not  revealed,  as  it  is  to  believe 
the  truth  or  to  disbelieve  error. 

Christian  honesty  is  based  upon  a  liberal  supply  of 
Christian  agnosticism. 

Unless  the  Scriptures  explicitly  state  the  contrary, 
we  have  a  right  to  assume  God's  moral  government 
will  be  the  same  in  the  next  world  as  in  this. 

Forever  men  set  dates  for  God,  and  God  disap- 
points them;  but  men  have  never  discovered  a  law 
of  God  which  He  repudiates. 

The  Bible  is  addressed  only  to  them  that  read  it. 

God  is  the  only  source  of  joy;  to  live  apart  from 
Him  is  hell. 

There  is  nothing  redemptive  in  sin  or  its  penalty. 

If  the  sufferings  of  the  wicked  do  not  make  them 
turn  to  God  here,  we  have  no  reason  to  believe  their 
sufferings  will  make  them  turn  hereafter. 

The  hell  of  sin  is  that  it  destroys  belief. 

Every  text  of  Scripture  must  be  read  in  the  light 
of  Christ's  face. 

Rewards  and  punishments  can  regulate,  but  not 
regenerate. 


CHAPTER   XII 

LIFE    IN    THE    HEAVENS 
God's  Personal  Influence  upon  His  Eternal  Sons 


"Then  felt  I  like  some  watcher  of  the  skies 
When  a  new  planet  swims  into  his  ken; 
Or  like  stout  Cortez,  when  with  eagle  eyes 
He  stared  at  the  Pacific,  and  all  his  men 
Look'd  at  each  other  with  a  wild  surmise, 
Silent,  upon  a  peak  of  Darien." 
Keats,  On  First  Looking  Into  Chapman  s  Horner. 

"  I  should  know  that  what  I  have  said  is  truth,  had 
I  the  confirmation  of  an  oracle;  but  this  I  will  affirm, 
that  what  I  have  said  is  the  most  likely  to  be  true  of 
anythmg  I  could  say." — Plato,  TivKzus. 

"When  I  consider  Thy  heavens,  what  is  Man  that 
Thou  art  mindful  of  him?  " — David,  Ps.  viii.  3. 

"Beloved,  now  are  we  the  Sons  of  God,  and  it  doth 
not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be;  but  we  know  that 
when  He  shall  appear,  we  shall  be  like  Him." — John, 
I  John  iii.  2. 


CHAPTER   XII 

If  stress  has  been  laid  heretofore  in  this 
writing  upon  the  erroneous  views  concerning 
the  life  hereafter,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that 
the  intention  has  been  to  minify  the  impor- 
tance of  the  hope  of  a  glorious  life  beyond, 
nor  in  any  way  to  mar  the  precious  and  tender 
anticipations  of  the  joy  there  awaiting  us. 
The  imagination  cannot  possibly  indulge  in 
fancies  so  sweet  that  the  reality  itself  will  not 
be  sweeter.  But  the  error  has  been  that 
many  of  those  Scriptural  expressions  which 
were  given  to  show  us  the  beauties  of  a  pres- 
ent life  in  Christ  have  been  transferred  to 
allude  to  a  future  existence.  However,  after 
removing  from  the  life  to  come  all  those  de- 
scriptions that  more  properly  apply  to  a  pres- 
ent Christian  experience,  there  yet  remain  a 
sufficient  number  and  quality  of  revelations 
concerning  the  home  beyond  the  grave  to 
convince  us  that  it  is  indeed  delightful  above 
compare.  This  chapter  is  added,  not  only  to 
trace  the  probable  effects  of  the  endless  influ- 
ence of  God  upon  undying  spirits,  but  also  to 
indicate  a  form  of  thought  concerning  our 
331 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

everlasting  life  that  may  be  more  consistent 
with  common  sense  and  the  present  state  of 
our  knowledge  of  the  universe — a  form,  it  is 
conceived,  infinitely  grander,  more  entran- 
cing, and  more  attractive  than  the  old  forms. 

It  must  always  be  kept  in  mind  that  all  our 
speculations  as  to  the  career  of  the  deathless 
soul  in  eternity  are  speculations  merely, 
except  that  we  know  that  if  one  is  in  Christ  it 
will  be  well  with  him.  We  know  that  for  the 
spirit  of  one  who  is  Christ's  there  is  a  cer- 
tainty of  joy  beyond.  The  writer  of  this 
essay  does  not  wish  to  commit  the  very  mistake 
he  criticises  in  others. 

The  apostles  were  very  careful  not  to 
indulge  in  any  rhapsodies  touching  what  they 
would  do  in  the  next  world.  Socrates  allowed 
his  fancy  to  run  on  before  and  depict  the 
pleasure  of  his  meeting  with  old  friends  and 
with  great  master  minds;  and  many  other 
philosophers  and  many  uninspired  religious 
teachers  have  composed  the  most  interesting 
fictions  concerning  the  unknown  future.  But 
the  Bible  writers  confined  themselves,  as  if 
under  divine  restraint,  from  any  such  fore- 
castings;  and  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  pre- 
sume they  thus  abstained  from  what  they 
would  naturally  be  inclined  to  do,  lest  they 
should  lead  men  to  suppose  their  conjectures 
to  be  positive  revelations  of  facts.  Paul 
332 


LIFE   IN   THE   HEAVENS 

speaks  of  the  *'prize,"  the  "crown,"  the 
*'rest, "  being  *'with  the  Lord,"  and  "with 
Christ";  but  nowhere  relates,  for  instance, 
how  he  expects  to  enter  the  golden  city,  and 
the  house  he  is  to  live  in,  with  its  gardens 
and  all  such  things.  He  alludes  to  being 
caught  up  in  the  air  when  the  Lord  shall 
appear,  and  otherwise  describes  with  some- 
thing of  detail  Christ's  second  coming,  but 
manifestly  he  did  not  mean  what  his  words 
seem  to  make  him  mean — /.  e.^  that  Jesus 
should  appear  in  bodily  glory  in  Paul's  own 
lifetime;  or  else  if  he  did  mean  that,  we 
know  he  was  mistaken.  But  we  do  not  here 
discuss  the  second  advent;  the  point  is  that 
all  the  circumstantial  descriptions  of  final 
glory  and  wrath  in  the  apostles'  writings  most 
probably  are  connected  with  the  second  com- 
ing of  Christ,  and  not  with  the  life  of  men 
after  death.  If  there  is  an  exception  to  this, 
it  is  in  the  Apocalypse;  and  of  that  book  it 
needs  only  be  said  that  the  best  scholarship 
and  piety  of  the  ages  are  still  undecided  as  to 
its  meaning.  At  least  its  holy  city  and  river 
and  tree  of  life  and  such  incidents  of  descrip- 
tion are  certainly  sacred  figures  whose  real 
contents  are  unknown,  except  that  they  por- 
tray things  lovely  and  most  pleasant. 

It   may   not   be  unnecessary  to  insist  here 
that   whatever  the   joys  of  heaven  may  be, 
333 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

they  are  not  to  depend  upon  the  kind  of  place 
it  is,  but  upon  the  kind  of  people  in  it.  Wher- 
ever there  is  a  God-filled  man  there  is  heaven. 
If  ail  men  were  like  Jesus,  this  fearth  would 
be  as  good  a  place  as  another  in  which  to 
spend  a  million  years.  All  God's  places  are 
good;  it  is  sin  only  that  turns  any  of  them 
into  a  hell.  Give  me  love  and  wisdom,  my 
Master's  presence,  and  the  touch  of  one  dear 
hand,  and  why  should  I  care  whether  I  walk 
golden  streets  or  live  upon  this  earthly  ball? 
And  yet  it  is  impossible  to  prevent  men  from 
creating  pictures  of  what  is  to  come  beyond 
death;  and  such  pictures  are  not  only  harm- 
less, but  they  may  be  helpful,  provided  only 
that  we  do  not  forget  that  they  are  hut  pictures 
of  our  own  making,  and  provided  that  we  do 
not  get  to  pinning  our  hopes  of  happiness 
upon  them  instead  of  upon  God.  For  that  is 
the  very  essence  of  idolatry;  to  look  for  joy 
and  help  from  any  scenes  or  circumstances 
God  gives  us,  instead  of  looking  alone  to 
Him.  It  is  trusting  in  created  things,  not  in 
the  Creator.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  know  that 
we  are  to  be ''forever  with  the  Lord. "  All 
other  joys  flow  from  that.  We  are  to  take  all 
lesser  pleasures  simply  on  trust  from  Him. 
The  reunion  with  friends,  the  bright  scenes, 
and  other  delights,  we  know  are  safe  in  His 
keeping.  The  blessed  assurance  we  have 
334 


LIFE    IN   THE    HEAVENS 

upon  our  entrance  into  the  unknown  is  that 
our  Father's  hand  is  in  ours  and  that  *'He 
will  freely  give  us  all  things."  If  any  think 
h  s  is  too  vague  and  colorless,  they  have  the 
wrong  spirit  toward  the  Father.  It  is  not  His 
promises,  nor  what  we  think  to  be  His  prom- 
ises; it  is  He  that  our  trust  hangs  upon. 

Keeping  ever  in  mind,  therefore,  that  all 
our  theories  concerning  the  circumstances  of 
the  next  life  are  only  attempts  to  give  form 
to  the  general  fact  that  we  shall  inherit  su- 
preme joy  because  we  are  God's  sons  and 
joint  heirs  with  Jesus,  there  is  no  harm,  but 
there  may  be  much  real  helpfulness,  in  imagin- 
ing the  place  and  manner  of  our  future  life. 
Some  fifty  thousand  human  beings,  it  is  said, 
go  every  hour  as  a  colony  from  earth  into  the 
unknown.*  It  is  of  most  absorbing  interest  to 
inquire  whither  they  go;  for  they  take  with 
them  the  fondest  love  of  us  who  are  left  be- 
hind ;  they  are  still  united  to  us  by  the  ties  of 
affection  and  friendship.  Hitherto  we  have 
had  two  kinds  of  ideas  concerning  their  desti- 
nation. One  notion  is  that  they  go  to  some 
paradise  or  intermediate  state,  there  to  await 
the  general  resurrection.  This  view  finds  its 
support  in  bending  many  varied  kinds  of 
Scripture  allusions  to  fit  a  preconceived  the- 
ory of   one   great    "general    assizes"  called 

»  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes. 

335 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

'*the  day  of  judgment."  And  this  theory  in 
turn  sprang  from  the  general  idea  of  making 
salvation  a  getting  safe  into  a  place  called 
heaven.  But  it  is  a  mere  supposition  and 
arbitrary  interpretation  of  indistinct  texts  to 
hold  that  God  keeps  all  souls  in  waiting- 
rooms  until  a  final  great  day,  after  which  the 
present  universe  shall  be  destroyed  and  two 
new  cities  appear,  called  heaven  and  hell, 
into  which  respectively  shall  go  the  good  and 
the  bad. 

The  second  notion  is  that  God,  Christ,  and 
the  angels  now  live  in  a  city  or  country  called 
heaven,  somewhere  in  the  skies,  and  the  souls 
of  good  men  at  death  go  to  that  place.  These 
souls  come  out  at  "the  day  of  judgment,"  but 
simply  as  a  matter  of  form,  for  they  receive 
the  verdict  of  acquittal  and  immediately  go 
back  to  their  celestial  residence.  This  view 
also  rests  upon  literal  interpretations  of  con- 
flicting prophetic  imagery. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  one  cannot  put 
aside  these  notions  without  seeming  to  be 
indulging  in  wanton  iconoclasm.  They  have 
so  long  been  the  set  form  of  Christian  thought 
that  to  intimate  that  they  are  incongruous 
and  self-contradictory  appears  cruel.  They 
have  been  embodied  in  some  of  the  greatest 
literary  masterpieces  of  the  world.  It  is  in 
the  garb  of  these  conceptions  that  Dante, 
336 


LIFE    IN    THE    HEAVENS 

Milton,  and  Bunyan  have  spoken  to  the  heart 
and  hope  of  mankind.  Many  of  our  favorite 
hymns  are  filled  with  these  figures  of  the 
truth;  the  "sweet  and  blessed  country,"  the 
*'sweet  fields  of  Eden,"  the  city  whose  "glit- 
tering towers  outshine  the  sun,"  and  "Jeru- 
salem, my  happy  home,"  are  woven  into  the 
very  fabric  of  our  religious  sentiment.  And 
there  is  no  necessity  of  tearing  them  out. 
One  can  still  sing  these  songs  and  read  these 
poems,  with  a  full  appreciation  of  the  feeling 
they  express;  if  he  has  not  put  them  away  by 
proving  them  false,  if  he  feels  that  they  are 
still  deeply  true  at  heart,  that  he  has  filled 
them  full  and  run  them  over,  if  they  are  no 
longer  large  enough  to  contain  the  new  con- 
ceptions of  glory.  They  express  the  poetic 
genius  of  a  former  age  seeking  to  embody  in 
the  words  and  visions  of  that  time  the  thought 
about  heaven.  It  seems,  therefore,  that  the 
time  is  ripe  for  a  new  poet,  who  shall  bathe 
his  wing  in  higher  fields  of  ether  than  were 
known  to  Milton  or  Dante,  who  shall  express 
the  enlarged  outlook  of  our  time,  even  as 
they  expressed  the  narrow  outlook  of  theirs: 
just  as  we  need  a  new  Pilgrim's  Progress  that 
shall  narrate  the  adventures  of  Christian,  not 
running  away  from  a  lost  world  to  a  holy 
refuge  in  the  sky,  but  running  after  the  world 
to  save  it  and  bring  it  to  his  own  abounding 
337 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

heavenly  life.  The  kind  of  concepts  in  which 
such  a  poet  might  indulge  I  shall  endeavor  to 
outline — a  heaven  of  heavens  infinitely  more 
sublime  than  the  holy  city  of  mediaeval 
thought. 

There  are  some  who  cannot  hear  without 
alarm  of  any  change  in  our  religious  ideas. 
If  the  Bible  is  true,  they  say,  it  must  be  fixed. 
If  there  be  any  change,  it  must  be  away  from 
the  set  and  unalterable  truth  of  Holy  Writ. 
Now,  our  belief  in  the  Bible  is  indeed  a  fixed 
thing,  unchanging;  yet  the  degree  to  which  we 
understand  the  Bible  must  always  enlarge  with 
our  growth  in  knowledge.  If  the  Bible  is  a 
revelation  of  God,  it  is  not  fixed  behind  us, 
but  before  us.  We  are  growing  up  to  it.  As 
our  knowledge  of  science  and  the  laws  of 
nature  increase,  our  interpretation  of  Bible 
revelations  will  alter,  and  we  may  be  sure 
that  if  the  advance  of  intelligence  brings  us 
nearer  the  truth  of  God  in  nature  our  new 
interpretations  of  God  in  the  Book  must  be 
also  nearer  the  truth.  Instead  of  the  increase 
of  knowledge,  with  the  progress  of  the  race, 
impoverishing  and  limiting  the  ideas  which 
we  gain  from  God's  Book,  on  the  contrary  it 
expands  them  to  a  remarkable  extent.  Our 
present  world-view,  due  to  the  results  of  sci- 
entific research,  gives  to  the  language  of  Holy 
Writ  meanings  of  which  the  prophets  and 
338 


LIFE   IN   THE   HEAVENS 

writers  themselves,  doubtless,  in  many  cases, 
were  but  little  aware.  ''When  I  consider  Thy 
heavens,"  sings  the  Psalmist,  "what  is  man 
that  Thou  art  mindful  of  him?"  But  the 
insignificance  of  man  compared  with  the  stu- 
pendous universe,  which  the  sacred  poet  here 
intended  to  depict,  is  how  much  more  strik- 
ing in  this  day,  when  telescopes  range  the  sky 
and  reveal,  beyond  and  above  those  hosts  of 
heaven  that  were  visible  to  the  Hebrew  of 
old,  seas  upon  seas  of  worlds  and  systems 
of  worlds  fading  away  into  infinite  distance! 
Thus  has  science  crowded  the  sacred  writer's 
phrase  with  newer  and  truer  meanings,  hints 
and  analogies,  of  which  he  never  dreamed. 
So  geology  has  stretched  the  six  creative  days 
of  Genesis  from  a  poor,  theatric  display  of 
artificial  power  into  a  sublime  drama  of  divine 
action,  covering  aeons  of  time,  moving  with  the 
measured  tread  of  unhasting  law,  rising  with 
the  majestic  dignity  of  a  godlike  growth.  A 
word  with  a  small  meaning  at  the  date  of  its 
utterance  may  be  enlarged  to  become  a  most 
momentous  expression  by  the  discoveries  of 
the  explorers.  Such  a  word  is  "the  world"; 
for  when  the  Master  said,  "God  so  loved  the 
world,"  how  limited  was  the  notion  conveyed 
to  the  disciples*  minds  and  with  how  vague 
edges  of  distant  barbarous  lands !  But  now  not 
only  have  millions  of  Chinese  and  islanders 
339 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

and  North  Americans  been  ushered  into  its 
contents,  but  also  the  whole  concept  of  "the 
world"  has  been  unified  and  woven  together. 
All  this  leads  up  to  and  illustrates  the  alter- 
ation necessary  in  our  views  of  the  life  beyond. 
We  believe  as  truly  in  heaven,  and  accept  the 
symbols  of  it  as  given  by  the  New  Testament 
writers  as  implicitly  as  did  Bernard  of  Cluny 
when  he  wrote  of  "those  halls  of  Zion  con- 
jubilant  with  song,"  but  we  are  compelled  to 
abandon  many  of  the  conventional  trappings 
and  appurtenances  which  he  and  those  of  his 
time  deemed  essential.  What  helped  them 
hinders  us  in  getting  a  helpful  view  of  the 
future  life.  When  all  thought  the  earth  lo  be 
flat  and  the  sky  to  be  its  star-punctured  semi- 
spherical  cover,  they  could  only  conceive  of 
heaven  as  one  place,  a  city  or  land  on  the 
other  side  of  this  lid,  and  they  supposed  that 
some  day  the  city  would  come  down  through 
the  blue  canopy  to  receive  us.  Thus  did  they 
understand  the  mystic  poetry  of  the  Revelator, 
and  thus  only  perhaps  could  they  understand 
it.  But  we  know  now  there  is  no  such  lid.  A 
heaven  becomes  the  heavens.  The  canopy, 
on  being  approached  with  a  lens,  extends 
away  into  measureless  reaches  of  space.  We 
must  adopt  a  new  form  for  our  thought,  or 
stultify  our  own  intelligence.  Is  it  possible  to 
find  such  a  form  which  shall  be  as  true  to 
340 


LIFE   IN   THE   HEAVENS 

Scriptural  imagery  as  was  the  old,  and  at  the 
same  time  square  with  our  present  knowledge 
of  the  universe?  In  order  to  indicate  such  a 
form,  let  us  assume,  merely  as  an  hypothesis, 
some  such  theory  as  this: 

The  earth  is  the  breeding-ground  from  whence 
God  intends  to  populate  the  whole  universe.  After 
death  the  soul  goes  to  that  place  God  has  prepared 
as  its  home.  This,  in  brief,  in  our  present 
state  of  knowledge,  seems  a  rational  view  of 
the  future  estate.  Let  us  examine  into  its 
reasonableness. 

And  first,  let  us  ask  ourselves  why  God 
made  so  vast  a  system  of  worlds.  Of  course, 
we  can  never  fully  know  God's  counsel,  but 
as  His  sons  we  are  justified  in  studying  His 
deeds.  Knowing  God,  as  we  do  in  Jesus,  we 
know  Him  to  be  a  sentient,  loving  person- 
ality. Jesus  taught  us  to  call  Him  Father. 
Now,  if  He  be  a  Father,  His  sons  are  dearer 
to  Him  than  all  His  possessions.  A  mechanic 
takes  pride  in  the  locomotive  or  watch  that  is 
the  product  of  his  skill;  but  more  does  he 
care  for  his  little  child,  and  he  only  makes 
his  handiwork  for  his  child's  sake.  So  God, 
looking  abroad  upon  all  the  immense  and 
inconceivably  great  works  of  His  hands,  "the 
moon  and  the  stars  which  He  has  ordained," 
still  would  say,  "The  Lord's  portion  is  His 
people."  Rather  would  He  destroy  them  all, 
341 


THE   RELIGION   OF  TO-MORROW 

wondrous  as  they  be,  than  that  any  harm 
thereby  come  to  *'one  of  these  little  ones." 
If  men  are  the  sons  of  God,  destined  in  the 
ages  of  the  future  to  become  ''Hike  Him,''  then 
He  surely  could  not  have  made  the  universal 
frame  for  any  better  reason  than  to  furnish 
dwelling-places  for  His  children.  The  mighti- 
est works  of  the  Creator  are  none  too  fine  for 
the  use  of  them  that  have  a  right  to  look  up 
and  say,  "Our  Father,  which  art  in  the 
heavens."  ^ 

It  may  be  objected  that  such  a  view  gives 
an  unwarranted  importance  to  man.  Infi- 
delity, curiously  enough,  makes  two  criticisms 
upon  the  Christian  scheme:  one,  that  it  makes 
man  too  small,  humiliates  and  prostrates  him; 
the  other,  that  it  makes  him  too  large,  occu- 
pying too  much  of  the  Almighty's  care; 
which  two  criticisms  we  might  quietly  leave 
to  devour  each  other.  But  size  has  nothing  to 
do  with  importance.  Because  a  man  only 
weighs  a  hundred  pounds  is  no  reason  for 
saying  he  is  not  worth  more  than  a  planet 
weighing  a  trillion  pounds  or  so.  A  father 
standing  by  the  bedside  of  a  dying  baby  would 
give  all  his  broad  acres  and  monster  build- 
ings for  the  life  of  that  little  fragment  of 
human  flesh  and  spirit.  Even  so  the  great 
cities  are  insignificant  as  compared  with  the 

*  The  word  is  plural  in  the  Greek. 


LIFE    IN   THE    HEAVENS 

humanity  that  built  and  inhabits  them.  Man 
is  not  the  largest  of  the  animals,  yet  has  he 
**dominion  over  every  living  thing";  the  lion 
and  the  elephant  flee  before  his  face.  Worth 
is  to  be  measured  by  soul  and  intellect.  It 
is  *'the  spirit  in  man"  that  endues  him  with 
such  importance. 

We  rarely  suspect  what  is  implied  by  en- 
dowing man  with  immortality.  As  an  unend- 
ing being  man  must  have  something  unending 
with  which  to  employ  his  energy.  God  has 
provided  him  here  with  two  things  to  do  which 
meet  this  requirement:  the  first  is  to  complete 
God's  unfinished  work,  the  second  is  to  study 
it;  and  these  two  tasks  would  be  exactly  that 
which  would  furnish  him  hereafter  with  an 
inviting  career.  We  find  here  that  the  Cre- 
ator gave  us  an  unfinished  earth;  there  are 
swamps  to  drain,  lake  borders  to  beautify, 
deserts  to  irrigate,  and  marble  quarries  to 
transform  into  temples  and  statues.  As  He 
made  a  garden,  but  put  Adam  in  it  to  tend  it, 
so  He  put  the  race  upon  earth  to  be  its  gar- 
dener and  bring  all  its  rough  readiness  into 
complete  order.  This  is  what  supplies  the 
legitimate  work  of  man,  and  this  kind  of  work 
is  never  irksome  when  undertaken  merely  for 
its  own  sake.  That  we  should  toil  for  bread 
and  clothes,  doing  our  stint  merely  for  wages 
from  another  man,  was  not  the  original  design, 
343 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

and  that  sort  of  labor  is  very  properly  called 
a  "curse."  We  are  to  labor  as  the  child 
plays,  for  the  delight  of  it.  One  who  grasps 
the  meaning  of  the  tendencies  of  human  prog- 
ress can  already  see  how  Christ  is  redeeming 
us  from  this  curse-work.  For  Christ's  influ- 
ence produces  civilization,  civilization  makes 
machinery,  and  more  and  more  is  machinery 
taking  all  the  manual  labor,  the  lifting  and 
drudgery,  away  from  human  hands;  and  we 
may  confidently  expect  that  by  and  by  ma- 
chines shall  do  all  the  disagreeable  slaving, 
leaving  men  to  be  simply  the  superintendents 
directing  the  tireless  potencies  of  steam,  elec- 
tricity, and  heat.^  With  a  proper  system  of 
distributing  wealth,  all  the  products  of  the 
earth  necessary  to  sustain  the  life  of  the  race 
in  abundance,  and  even  luxury,  could  be 
raised  by  a  few  persons,  and  by  their  working 
in  an  agreeable  manner,  while  the  rest  of 
mankind  could  pursue  higher  aims,  such  as 
the  adornment  of  the  planet.  Thus  is  Christ 
"taking  away  our  curse"  and  making  of  the 
earth  a  play-ground;  for  play  differs  from 
work  in  this,  that  play  is  exertion  undertaken 
solely  for  the  pleasure  of  it,^  while  work  is 
exertion  which  we  do  not  like,  undertaken  for 
the  sake  of  securing  by  it  a  remoter  pleasur- 

'  See  Bulwer's  "The  Coming  Race." 
«  Bushnell,  "Work  and  Play." 

344 


LIFE   IN   THE    HEAVENS 

able  end.  And  therefore  may  we  not  suppose 
that  God  brings  His  sons  into  existence,  in 
order  that  in  them  He  may  see  Himself 
reflected  (for  a  loving  Being  must  desire  to  be 
loved),  and  calls  the  race  to  the  divine 
employment  of  being  His  partner  in  creation, 
going  forth  through  all  the  worlds  of  the 
heavens  to  add  the  finishing  touches  of  habit- 
able and  homelike  beauty  and  order  to  the 
spheres  that  He  has  made?  And  can  man 
aspire  to  a  higher  destiny  than  thus  to  lay 
his  hands  upon  the  universe  God  has  prepared 
for  him,  and  looking  up  into  the  unclouded 
face  of  his  Maker,  to  say,  "My  Father  work- 
eth  hitherto,  and  I  work"? 

Secondly,  an  immortal  spirit  like  man  must 
have  something  that  shall  eternally  occupy 
his  intellect.  As  the  body  finds  its  health 
and  pleasure  in  activity,  so  must  the  mind 
have  its  field  and  task.  Therefore  has  the 
Father  put  within  His  marvelous  creation 
rich  and  toothsome  laws  and  problems  in  the 
investigation  of  which  the  mind  finds  its  pur- 
est delight.  The  observation  of  nature,  the 
study  of  the  sciences,  is  fit  to  be  the  perma- 
nent occupation  of  the  life  to  come.  To 
many  this  may  seem  quite  uninviting,  for  they 
conceive  scientific  research  to  be  dry  and 
hard.  But  the  mere  drudgery  of  science,  the 
classifying  and  compiling,  is  not  minded  by 
345 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

those  who  have  tasted  the  intoxicating  cup 
of  real  scientific  work.  It  is  the  most  entran- 
cing and  prophetic  of  all  callings.  For,  as 
Bushnell  says,  *'we  find  that  a  certain  capa- 
city of  elevation  or  poetic  ardor  is  the  most 
fruitful  source  of  scientific  discovery;  for 
what  are  the  laws  of  science  but  the  ideas  of 
God — those  regulative  types  of  thought  by 
which  God  created,  moves,  and  rules  the 
world?"  Thus  will  we  be  engaged  through- 
out the  endless  ages  in  the  only  mental  occu- 
pation which  we  can  imagine  to  go  on  in 
increasing  delight  without  end;  in  stretching 
out  our  minds  upon  the  glorious  framework 
of  creation,  its  laws,  its  harmonies,  and  its 
relations,  exclaiming  in  sacred  rapture  to  Him 
who  ever  abides  in  us,  "O  God,  I  think  Thy 
thoughts  after  Thee!" 

We  should  not  suppose  our  employ  here- 
after to  consist  only  in  singing  psalms  and 
shouting  hallelujahs.  The  common  notion 
that  in  heaven  we  shall  be  engaged  in  purely 
religious  exercises  all  the  time  is  not  an  agree- 
able one,  simply  because  man  was  not  intended 
for  this.  Our  natures  are  so  made  that  a 
place  "where  congregations  ne'er  break  up 
and  Sabbaths  have  no  end"  does  not  attract 
us.  Yet  many,  under  the  impression  that 
this  is  to  be  our  sole  future  occupation,  strive 
to  live  that  sort  of  life  here.  From  much 
346 


LIFE   IN   THE   HEAVENS 

religious  teaching  one  would  gather  that  his 
Christian  life  is  not  what  God  would  have  it 
unless,  as  much  as  his  struggle  for  bread  will 
permit,  he  be  always  engaged  in  singing, 
praying,  testifying,  listening  to  preaching,  or 
reading  the  Bible.  But  the  invariable  result 
of  giving  one's  self  wholly  to  religious  thought 
is  morbidity  and  unhealthy  spiritual  life. 
Temperance  is  the  rule,  also,  in  religion. 
While  some  may  be  called  upon  to  give  them- 
selves almost  wholly  to  religious  exercises, 
such  is  not  the  normal  life.  In  emergencies, 
upon  certain  occasions,  it  may  behoove  us  to 
lay  aside  all  secular  matters  and  concentrate 
ourselves  upon  church  work.  But  that  is  not 
the  typical  Christian  life.  We  are  created  to 
plow,  to  sow,  to  reap,  to  build,  to  explore, 
to  study,  to  laugh,  and  to  play.  The  right 
Christian  life  consists  in  doing  these  things 
like  children  of  God,  and  not  like  cats  and 
dogs.  Religion,  in  fine,  is  the  spirit  in  which 
work  is  to  be  done;  it  is  not  a  work  to  be 
done.  It  is  not  something  to  do,  it  is  the 
way  in  which  we  are  to  do  all  things.  Reli- 
gion is  the  tune;  "earthly"  business  is  the 
words.  When  men  have  lost  the  tune  or  are 
off  the  key,  it  is  proper  enough  that  some  of 
us  should  devote  ourselves  wholly  to  setting 
them  right;  but  the  Father  never  intended  the 
race   to  be   finally  forever  humming  "songs 

347 


THE    RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

without  words."  The  most  wholesome  kind 
of  Christianity  is  not  that  of  priests,  preach- 
ers, and  deaconesses,  but  that  of  housewives, 
merchants,  artists,  students,  and  especially 
little  children.  Excessive  religiosity  is  as 
dangerous  as  any  other  kind  of  excess  and  is 
as  fruitful  as  any  in  insanity. 

Engaged  thus  in  the  everlasting  career  that 
shall  continually  employ  the  faculties  of  the 
mind  and  of  whatever  body  the  spirit  may 
take  unto  itself,  we  must  not  forget  that  such 
a  being  will  ascend  ever  higher  in  development} 
If  man  is  "fearfully  and  wonderfully  made" 
now,  what  will  he  be  when  endless  time  has 
removed  every  barrier  to  his  progress?  After 
ten  thousand  years  of  unimpeded  develop- 
ment the  meanest  boor  will  become  as  much 
more  magnificent  in  his  personality  than  a 
Goethe  here,  as  such  a  Goethe  living  now 
would  be  above  an  African  slave.  What 
amazing  possibilities  does  eternity  open  be- 
fore the  mind!  How  rich  may  it  become  in 
wisdom  and  knowledge,  how  skilled  in  the 
perception  of  the  truth!  What  possibilities  of 
artistic  attainment  are  also  thus  disclosed! 
Art  also  shall  be  an  employment,  for  it  is  the 
representation  and  interpretation  of  the  works 
of  God.  Doubtless  the  germs  of  all  that  any 
man    has   become   lurk   in   each   soul   of  the 

1  Bushnell,  "The  Power  of  an  Endless  Life." 


LIFE   IN   THE   HEAVENS 

whole  race.  Given  unending  time,  the  basest 
and  lowliest  men  may  outstrip  Beethoven  and 
Michael  Angelo;  playing  also  upon  what  new 
instruments  and  painting  with  what  new  col- 
ors! Well  might  the  Psalmist  cry,  *'I  said, 
ye  are  gods!"  and  John,  '*It  doth  not  yet 
appear  what  we  shall  be!"  And  who  knows 
but  that  Michael  and  Gabriel,  the  angels  and 
archangels,  the  seraphim  and  cherubim,  are 
but  human  souls  elevated  by  the  orderly  de- 
velopment of  eternity's  long  years  to  that 
supernal  dignity  and  radiance  wherein  they 
stand?  Endow  a  human  being  with  eternity, 
and  what  is  not  possible?  May  we  not  hope 
that  at  last  God  will  look  upon  our  own  full- 
grown  souls,  glorious  with  His  glory,  reflect- 
ing back  the  very  fullness  of  His  love  and 
beauty,  and  thrill  with  gratitude  and  pride 
because  of  His  children?  "He  shall  see  the 
travail  of  His  soul  and  be  satisfied." 

If  it  be  objected  that  Tellus  is  too  small  a 
planet  to  be  given  such  supreme  significance, 
and  that  this  view  is  but  reviving  the  fallacy 
of  the  ancients  that  earth  was  the  center  about 
which  all  the  heavenly  host  stands;  it  may  be 
answered  that  making  the  earth  to  be  the  cen- 
ter of  spiritual  interest  for  the  universal  peo- 
ple does  not  in  any  degree  imply  that  it  is  the 
physical  center  of  the  universe ;  and  again  that 
God  surely  must  begin  somewhere  if  He  is  to 
349 


THE    RELIGION   OF  TO-MORROW 

people  His  spheres  at  all,  and  it  is  as  reason- 
able to  suppose  He  begins  at  Tellus  as  at  any 
other  planet  or  star. 

As  to  the  matter  of  time,  God  is  in  no 
hurry;  it  is  only  man  who  frets  and  is  impa- 
tient; and  what  matter  if  it  be  many  millions 
of  years  before  all  the  habitable  worlds  are 
full;  what  matter,  indeed,  if  they  never  be 
full  at  all,  many  being  reserved  as  parks  or 
playgrounds,  many  others  being  central  suns 
merely  to  give  light  and  heat  to  their  sur- 
rounding populated  planets,  others  still,  being 
like  our  moon,  worlds  grown  old,  and  others 
being  worlds  yet  in  process  of  preparation? 
Geologists  tell  us  the  earth  is  yet  young,  so 
that  for  millenniums  yet  to  come  it  will  con- 
tinue to  send  forth  these  colonies  out  into 
*'the  republic  of  God"  in  the  heavens. 

There  is  another  singular  way  in  which 
this  theory  sheds  light  upon  the  coherence  of 
the  Christian  scheme  of  thought.  Has  it  not 
always  seemed  a  little  strange  that  the 
Almighty  should  go  to  so  much  pains  to  save 
this  little  world;  that  He  should  send  His 
*'only  begotten  Son"  to  this  planet?  For,  if 
other  worlds  be  peopled,  it  is  not  unlikely 
that  similar  demands  would  be  made  upon 
His  love  by  them.  And  why  is  the  man 
Christ  Jesus  called  His  only  begotten  Son? 
Is  there  any  other  hypothesis  than  the  one 
350 


LIFE   IN   THE   HEAVENS 

here  suggested  that  makes  this  reasonable? 
But  if  the  other  worlds  be  filled  with  the  hu- 
manity of  this,  if  they  all  be  linked  together 
as  one  human  stock,  if  by  incarnating  Him- 
self into  this  race  He  became  one  with  the 
whole  population  of  the  heavens,  then  our  idea 
of  the  incarnation  is  not  out  of  proportion. 
At  once  He  entered  into  and  identified  Him- 
self with  His  whole  people. 

Touching  this  is  another  fact,  that  while 
Jesus  was  **very  man"  during  His  life.  He  is 
also  explicitly  described  as  still  remaining  a 
man  after  His  resurrection.  After  rising 
from  the  grave  He  showed  Himself  to  His 
disciples;  He  urged  them  to  feel  of  His 
hands  and  side,  saying,  "Hath  a  ghost  flesh 
and  blood?"  for  they  thought  He  might  be  an 
apparition.  And  He  ate  fish  and  honeycomb. 
And  that  His  life  continued  to  be  the  same, 
and  that  death  was  simply  nothing  at  all^  ex- 
cept a  change  in  the  bodily  substance,  is 
shown  by  His  still  expounding  the  Scriptures 
on  the  way  to  Emmaus,  just  as  He  did  in  His 
earthly  life,  and  by  His  taking  up  the  thread 
of  His  relations  with  Peter  where  it  had  been 
dropped  upon  the  fatal  night  when  the  impul- 
sive apostle  denied  Him,  and  asking  thrice, 
**Simon,  son  of  Jonas,  lovest  thou  Me?"  so 
that  His  whole  personality  thus  still  persists. 
Carried  to  its  logical  conclusion,  what  does 
351 


THE    RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

this  mean?  It  means  that  God's  identity 
with  this  race  is  more  than  a  figure  of  speech. 
If  Christ  is  very  man,  God  is  very  man.  If 
God  is  man,  man  is  of  God.  Humanity  is 
thus  elevated  to  most  imperial  significance. 
We  begin  to  get  glimpses  of  what  Christ 
meant  when  He  prayed  the  Father:  "As 
Thou,  Father,  art  in  Me,  and  I  in  Thee,  that 
they  also  may  be  one  in  Us.  And  the  glory 
which  Thou  gavest  Me  I  have  given  them; 
that  they  may  be  one  even  as  We  are  one;  I 
in  them  and  Thou  in  Me."  Thus  did  He  lift 
in  intercessory  prayer  that  face  which  bright- 
ens the  air  of  Paradise;  thus  did  He  raise 
those  arms,  by  which  also  He  made  the 
worlds,  and  bind  together  in  indissoluble  and 
awful  unity  (the  plain  meaning  of  whose 
words  we  hardly  dare  believe),  the  Father,  the 
Son,  and  the  many  sons,  all  by  the  Eternal 
Spirit. 

Now,  if  we  be  sons,  all  things  are  ours. 
Look,  therefore,  to  the  star-sown  deeps,  filled 
with  worlds  each  as  glorious  as  this,  and  know 
that  they  are  yours,  all  yours,  by  direct 
inheritance  from  your  Father!  Is  this  too 
great?  To  say  so  is  to  misapprehend  a  human 
soul.  Instead  of  being  too  great,  it  is  the 
only  idea  that  has  ever  been  large  enough  to 
measure  up  to  the  wants  and  possibilities  of 
man.  You  think  you  can  fill  a  man!  There 
352 


LIFE   IN   THE    HEAVENS 

is  a  hungry,  ragged  street  urchin ;  try  to  fill 
him;  he  wants — a  dinner.  Give  him  dinner 
and  breakfast  and  supper,  and  assure  him  of 
these  every  day;  is  he  satisfied?  No;  now 
he  wants  clothes,  then  a  little  knowledge, 
then  more  knowledge,  then  to  rule  his  ward, 
then  he  wants  a  whole  nation,  then  the  world 
itself;  and  thus  go  on  with  that  insatiate 
soul,  smitten  with  eternity-hunger,  pouring 
into  it  lands,  houses,  oceans,  continents,  hon- 
ors, riches,  pleasures;  and  what  do  you  get 
from  him?  A  distressed  cry  for  more.^  For 
you  have  tried  to  fill  a  soul  with  one  planet 
when  it  will  hold  galaxies.  The  human  spirit 
alone  can  contain  and  use  a  universe,  and 
therefore  has  the  God  who  made  the  universe 
given  it  to  the  only  being  that  would  know 
what  to  do  with  it. 

It  may  not  be  trivial  to  remark  also  that 
Christ's  asseveration,  **In  the  resurrection 
they  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage,"^ 
acquires  a  cogency  from  the  theory  here  pro- 
posed that  it  gains  from  no  other  hypothesis. 
Ours  alone,  then,  is  the  generative  planet. 
The  function  of  physical  reproduction  not 
only  supplies  inhabitants  for  the  universe,  but 
it  lays  the  foundation  for  the  family,  and  intro- 
duces man  to  the  divine  feeling  of  love, 
which,   purged  from  all  fleshly  grossness  (be- 

»  Carlyle,  "  Sartor  Resartus."  "  Matt.  xxii.  30. 

353 


THE   RELIGION   OF   TO-MORROW 

cause  there  is  to  be  no  reproduction  here- 
after), is  the  tie  among  heavenly  intelligences. 
To  incorporate  Himself  into  the  race  the 
Father  must  needs  come  to  the  reproductive 
planet. 

Why,  then,  is  it  either  useless  or  sacrile- 
gious to  endeavor  to  modify  our  ideas  of  the 
Scriptures'  meaning  to  conform  to  the  known 
facts  science  has  discovered?  The  Bible 
glows  with  a  new  light  when  it  is  interpreted 
by  the  best  results  of  investigation.  The 
forms  of  thought  concerning  a  future  life  that 
once  enraptured  saints  on  earth  several  hun- 
dred years  ago,  are  not  attractive  to  an  intel- 
ligent man  now,  because  they  do  not  fit  what 
he  knows  to  be  the  construction  of  nature. 
Abandoning  all  the  pure,  divine  joys  of  art 
and  science  and  creative  work,  to  dwell  for- 
ever in  one  cubical  city  crowded  with  souls, 
and  there  to  be  occupied  entirely  in  religious 
services,  all  this  appeals  not  to  a  wholesome, 
normal  man,  but  only  to  a  sickly  instinct 
reveling  in  a  literalistic  interpretation  which 
is  as  distorted  as  it  is  unsound. 

The  spacious  firmament  has  always  been 
the  most  prophetic  spectacle  the  Creator  has 
revealed  to  men.  It  thrilled  the  ancients,  it 
humbled  Immanuel  Kant,  it  convinced  Napo- 
leon of  God.  It  has  peculiarly  lifted  the  lives 
of  men,  as  though  some  strange  force  in  it 
354 


LIFE   IN   THE    HEAVENS 

drew  humanity  upward,  away  from  their  fellow- 
animals,  as  though  its  silent  voice  touched  that 
in  them  which  other  creatures  do  not  possess. 
Can  it  be  pure  absurdity  to  suppose  that  the 
sympathy  and  yearning  of  celestial  humanities 
form  no  insignificant  part  of  the  force  that 
makes  the  sky  the  majestic,  yet  mute,  herald 
of  Almighty  God? 

"The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God: 
And  the  firmament  showeth  his  handiwork. 
Day  unto  day  uttereth  speech, 
And  night  unto  night  showeth  knowledge. 
They  have  no  speech  nor  language, 
Yet  without  these  is  their  voice  heard. 
Their  influence  is  gone  out  through  all  the  world: 
And  their  words  to  the  end  of  the  world."  ^ 

Best  of  all,  when  we  view  the  heavens  as 
our  destination,  we  get  a  better  grasp  of  the 
home  idea  of  the  life  to  come.  Thus  are  we 
not  all  to  be  huddled  into  one  great  city 
where  the  endearing  and  domestic  affections 
are  to  be  swallowed  up  in  religious  ardor. 
Each  man  goes  to  his  own  people.  "I  go  to 
prepare  a  place  for  you,"  said  Christ.^  If  He 
was  merely  returning  to  that  abode  of  angels 
from  whence  He  came,  how  could  He  be  said 
to  be  preparing  a  place?  for  that  was  already 
prepared.  But  He  went  to  make  ready  a  par- 
ticular place  for  them  especially,  as  He  pre- 

*  Ps.  xix.  margin.  '  John  xiv,  2. 

355 


THE   RELIGION    OF   TO-MORROW 

pares  other  places  for  others.  Even  Judas 
*  'went  to  his  own  place. "  *  The  Bible's  terms 
do  not  require  us  to  think  of  but  one  place 
for  all.  "In  My  Father's  house  are  many 
mansions." 

Coming  into  this  world  we  find  a  place  pre- 
pared; a  mother's  breast  whereon  to  lean, 
and  a  father's  willing  hands  to  shield  and 
help  us.^  Going  into  that  world  it  is  not  out 
of  reason  to  presume  that  there,  also,  those 
departed  loved  ones,  bright  with  the  incre- 
ment of  divine  days  and  years  of  growth,  shall 
meet  us  with  smiles,  welcome  us  into  some 
dear  home^  and  instruct  our  feeble  understand- 
ings, our  wayward  will,  and  our  undisciplined 
heart  in  the  new  life.  Home  is  the  sweetest 
of  words.  Because  one  place  is  peculiarly 
mine  argues  not  that  all  other  places  are 
inferior;  that  some  friends  are  especially  my 
own  only  makes  me  the  more  charitable  to 
strangers.  Yonder,  too,  is  a  home — not,  like 
this  one,  a  moving  tent,  no  continuing  city, 
but  a  house  eternal  in  the  heavens. 

The  men  of  old  peopled  the  firmament  with 
constellations,  fantastic  forms  of  departed 
heroes;  was  this  a  foreshadowing  hint  of  the 
truth  that  the  exaltation  we  feel  when  we 
stand  beneath  the  starry  dome  is  not  only  the 
natural  wonder  at  something  vast  and  great, 

»  Acts  i.  25.  «  Clarke. 

356 


LIFE   IN   THE   HEAVENS 

but  also  the  yearning  of  our  hearts  in  response 
to  the  down-shining  eyes  of  them 

"  That  we  have  loved  long  since, 
And  lost  awhile"  ? 

Go  forth,  therefore,  beneath  the  unmeasured 
deeps  of  heaven,  and  from  thence  drink  in 
The  Personal  Influence  of  God,  and  of  all 
saints.  It  is  infinitely  tender  and  consoling 
to  imagine  that  perhaps  even  now  as  you 
stand  there  gazing  upward  at  the  friendly 
stars  that  wink  at  you  in  strange  yet  familiar 
beckonings,  upon  some  one  of  them  a  little 
colony  of  emigrants,  who  sailed  from  the  port 
of  death  and  took  with  them  all  the  bright- 
ness and  zest  of  life,  stand  waiting  for  you. 
Even  now,  mayhap,  your  eyes  behold  the 
"home,  sweet  home,"  where  shall  be  restored 
to  you 

"The  touch  of  a  vanished  hand 
And  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still." 


357 


SUGGESTIONS 

The  imaginations  touching  the  future  life  may  be 
helpful,  provided  we  remember  they  are  imagina- 
tions. 

The  time  is  ripe  for  a  new  Dante  and  a  new  Mil- 
ton, who  shall  read  the  imagery  of  the  Bible  in  the 
light  of  modern  information. 

The  Bible  is  a  fixed  book,  but  fixed  before  us,  not 
behind  us. 

Every  scientific  discovery  is  a  new  parable  of  God. 

The  pictures  of  heaven  that  helped  the  mediaeval 
saint  may  hinder  us. 

The  universe  is  none  too  fine  nor  great  for  the  sons 
of  God. 

Christ  takes  away  the  curse  of  work  thus:  Chris- 
tianity makes  civilization,  civilization  makes  machin- 
ery and  altruism,  machinery  does  the  drudgery,  and 
altruism  will  distribute  the  fruits  with  justice. 

An  eternal  spirit  must  have  an  eternal  task. 

An  eternal  intellect  must  have  eternal  problems. 

Religion  is  not  a  work  to  be  done,  it  is  the  way  in 
which  work  is  to  be  done. 

Religion  is  the  tune,  earthly  business  is  the  words. 

With  eternity,  the  meanest  boor  may  become  an 
archangel. 

Perhaps  at  last  God  may  be  proud  of  us. 

God  values  us,  not  for  what  we  are,  but  for  what  He 
intends  to  make  of  us. 

By  the  incarnation  God  identified  Himself  with  the 
population  of  the  universe. 

Christ  was  "very  man";  He  is  still  "very  man"; 
and  Christ  is  "the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily"; 
from  these  premises  we  hardly  dare  draw  the  con- 
clusion. 


APPENDIX 

Extract  from  Whately,   **On  the  Abolition   of  the 

Law" 

(See  note  i,  p.  54.) 


APPENDIX 

Extract  from  Whately's  Essay,  *<0n  the  Abolition 
of  the  Law,"  in  "Difficulties  in  the  Writings  of 
Saint  Paul,"  p.   148. 

The  simplest  and  clearest  way,  then,  of  stat- 
ing the  case  with  respect  to  the  present  ques- 
tion is,  to  lay  down,  on  the  one  hand,  that 
the  Mosaic  law  was  limited  both  to  the  nation 
of  Israelites  and  to  the  period  before  the  Gos- 
pel; but,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  natural 
principles  of  morality,  which  (among  other 
things)  it  inculcates,  are  from  their  own  char- 
acter of  universal  obligation — that  is,  on  the 
one  hand,  "no  Christian  man  (as  our  article 
expresses  it)  is  free  from  the  observance  of 
those  commandments  which  are  called 
moral,"  so,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  be- 
cause they  are  commandments  of  the  Mosaic 
law  that  he  is  bound  to  obey  them,  but  be- 
cause they  are  moral.  Indeed,  there  are 
numerous  precepts  in  the  laws,  for  instance,  of 
Solon  and  Mahomet,  from  a  conformity  to 
which  no  Christian  can  pretend  to  exemption; 
yet,  though  we  are  bound  to  practice  alms- 
giving and  several  other  duties  there  enjoined, 
and  to  abstain  from  murder,  for  instance, 
and  false-witness — which  these  law-givers  for- 
bid— no  one  would  say  that  a  part  of  the 
361 


APPENDIX 

Koran  is  binding  on  Christians  since  their 
conduct  is  determined,  not  by  the  authority 
of  the  Koran,  but  by  the  nature  of  the  case. 
If  men  are  taught  to  regard  the  Mosaic  law 
(with  the  exception  of  the  civil  and  cere- 
monial ordinances)  as  their  appointed  rule  of 
life,  they  will  be  disposed  to  lower  the  stand- 
ard of  Christian  morality  by  contenting  them- 
selves with  a  literal  adherence  to  the  express  com- 
mands of  that  law;  or,  at  least,  merely  to 
enlarge  that  code  by  the  addition  of  such  pre- 
cise moral  precepts  as  they  find  distinctly 
enacted  in  the  New  Testament.  Now  this 
was  very  far  from  being  the  apostle's  view  of 
the  Christian  life.  Not  only  does  the  Gospel 
require  a  morality  in  many  respects  higher 
and  more  perfect  in  itself  than  the  law,  but 
it  places  morality  universally  on  higher 
grounds.  Instead  of  precise  rules^  it  furnishes 
sublime  principles  of  conduct,  leaving  the 
Christian  to  apply  these,  according  to  his  own 
discretion  in  each  case  that  may  arise,  and 
thus  to  be  "a  law  unto  himself."  Gratitude 
for  the  redeeming  love  of  God  in  Christ,  with 
mingled  veneration  and  affection  for  the  per- 
son of  our  great  Master,  and  an  exalted  emu- 
lation, leading  us  to  tread  in  His  steps;  an 
ardent  longing  to  behold  His  glories,  and  to 
enjoy  His  presence  in  the  world  to  come, 
with  an  earnest  effort  to  prepare  for  that 
better  world;  love  toward  our  brethren  for 
His  sake  who  died  for  us  and  them;  and, 
above  all,  the  thought  that  the  Christian  is  a 
part  of  "the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  who 
dwelleth  in  the  church,  even  the  Spirit  of 
Christ,  without  which  we  are  none  of  His,  a 
362 


APPENDIX 

temple  which  we  are  bound  to  keep  unde- 
filed — these,  and  such  as  these,  are  the  Gos- 
pel principles  of  morality,  into  a  conformity 
with  which  the  Christian  is  to  fashion  his 
heart  and  his  life;  and  they  are  such  princi- 
ples as  the  Mosaic  dispensation  could  not 
furnish.  The  Israelites,  as  not  only  living 
under  a  revelation  which  had  but  a  shadow  of 
the  good  things  of  the  Gospel,  but  also  as  a 
dull  and  gross-minded  and  imperfectly  civi- 
lized people,  in  a  condition  corresponding  to 
that  of  childhood,  were  in  few  things  left  to 
their  own  moral  discretion,  but  were  furnished 
with  precise  rules  in  most  points  of  conduct. 
These  answered  to  the  exact  regulations 
under  which  children  are  necessarily  placed, 
and  which  are  gradually  relaxed  as  they  ad- 
vance toward  maturity — not  at  all  on  the 
ground  that  good  conduct  is  less  required  of 
7)1671  than  of  children ;  but  they  are  expected 
to  be  more  capable  of  regulating  their  own 
conduct  by  their  ow7l  discretion,  and  of  acting 
upon  principle. 

When,  then,  the  Mosaic  code  was  abolished, 
we  find  no  other  system  of  rules  substituted 
in  its  place.  Our  Lord  and  His  apostles  en- 
forced such  duties  as  were  the  most  liable  to 
be  neglected,  corrected  some  prevailing 
errors,  gave  some  particular  directions  which 
particular  occasions  called  for,  but  laid  down 
no  set  of  rtdes  for  the  conduct  of  a  Christian. 
They  laid  down  Christian  //-/V///^^  instead; 
they  sought  to  implant  Christian  dispositions. 
And  this  is  the  more  remarkable  inasmuch 
as  we  may  be  sure,  from  the  nature  of  man, 
that  precise  regulations,  even  though   some- 

3^3 


APPENDIX 

what  tedious  to  learn  and  burdensome  to 
observe,  would  have  been  highly  acceptable 
to  their  converts.  Hardly  any  restraint  is  so 
irksome  to  man — that  is,  to  *'the  natural 
man" — as  to  be  left  to  his  own  discretion,  yet 
still  required  to  regulate  his  conduct  accord- 
ing to  certain  principles,  and  to  steer  his 
course  through  the  intricate  channels  of  life, 
with  a  constant,  vigilant  exercise  of  his  moral 
judgment.  It  is  much  more  agreeable  to  hu- 
man indolence  (though  at  first  sight  the  con- 
trary might  be  supposed)  to  have  a  complete 
system  of  laws  laid  down,  which  are  to  be 
observed  according  to  the  letter,  not  to  the 
spirit,  and  which,  as  long  as  a  man  adheres 
to  them,  afford  both  a  consolatory  assurance 
of  safety  and  an  unrestrained  liberty  as  to 
every  point  not  determined  by  them,  than  to 
be  called  upon  for  incessant  watchfulness, 
careful  and  candid  self-examination,  and  studi- 
ous cultivation  of  certain  moral  dispositions. 
Accordingly,  most,  if  not  all  systems  of 
man's  devising  (whether  corruptions  of  Chris- 
tianity or  built  on  any  other  foundations)  will 
be  found,  even  in  what  appear  their  most  rigid 
enactments,  to  be  accommodated  to  this  ten- 
dency of  the  human  heart.  When  Mahomet, 
for  instance,  enjoined  on  his  disciples  a  strict 
fast  during  a  certain  period,  and  an  entire 
abstinence  from  wine  and  from  games  of 
chance,  and  the  devotion  of  a  precise  portion 
of  their  property  to  the  poor,  leaving  them  at 
liberty  generally  to  follow  their  own  sensual 
and  worldly  inclinations,  he  imposed  a  far 
less  severe  task  on  them  than  if  he  had 
required  them  constantly  to  control  their  ap- 

364 


APPENDIX 

petites  and  passions,  to  repress  covetousness, 
and  to  be  uniformly  temperate,  charitable, 
and  heavenly-minded.  And  had  Paul  been 
(as  a  false  teacher  always  will  be)  disposed 
to  comply  with  the  expectation  and  wishes 
which  his  disciples  would  naturally  form,  he 
would  doubtless  have  referred  them  to  some 
part  of  the  Mosaic  law  as  their  standard  of 
morality,  or  would  have  substituted  some 
other  system  of  rules  in  its  place.  Indeed, 
there  is  strong  reason  to  think  (especially 
from  what  we  find  in  i  Corinthians)  that  some- 
thing of  this  nature  had  actually  been  desired 
of  him.  He  seems  to  have  been  applied  to 
for  more  precise  rules  than  he  was  willing  to 
give,  particularly  as  to  the  lawfulness  of  going 
to  idol  feasts,  and  as  to  several  points  relative 
to  marriage  and  celibacy — concerning  which 
and  other  matters  he  gives  briefly  such  direc- 
tions as  the  occasion  rendered  indispensable, 
but  breaks  off  into  exhortations  to  "use  this 
world  as  not  abusing  it,"  and  speedily  recurs 
to  the  general  description  of  the  Christian 
character  and  the  inculcation  of  Christian  prin- 
ciples. He  will  not  be  induced  to  enter  into 
minute  details  of  things  forbidden  and  per- 
mitted, enjoined  and  dispensed  with;  and 
even  when  most  occupied  in  repelling  the 
suspicion  that  Gospel  liberty  exempts  the 
Christian  from  moral  obligation,  instead  of 
retaining  or  framing  anew  any  system  of  pro- 
hibitions and  injunctions,  he  urges  upon  his 
hearers  the  very  consideration  of  their  being 
exempt  from  any  such  childish  trammels  as  a 
reason  for  their  aiming  at  a  more  perfect 
holiness   of  life   on   pure  and  more  generous 

36s 


APPENDIX 

motives.  *'Sin,"  he  says,  "shall  not  have 
dominion  over  you;  for  ye  are  not  under  the 
law^  but  under  grace'' ;  and  he  perpetually 
incites  them  to  walk  '^worthy  of  their  voca- 
tion," on  the  ground  of  their  being  "bought 
with  a  price,"  and  bound  to  "live  unto  Him 
who  died  for  them";  "as  risen  with  Christ" 
to  a  new  life  of  holiness,  exhorted  to  "set 
their  affections  on  things  above,  not  on  things 
on  the  earth";  as  "living  sacrifices"  to  God; 
as  "the  temple  of  Holy  Ghost,"  called  upon 
to  keep  God's  dwelling-place  undefiled,  and 
to  abound  in  all  "the  fruits  of  the  Spirit"; 
and  as  "being  delivered  from  the  law,  that 
we  should  serve  in  newness  of  the  spirit,  and 
not  in  the  oldness  of  the  letter." 

He  who  seeks,  then — as  many  are  disposed 
to  do — either  in  the  Old  Testament  or  in  the 
New  for  a  precise  code  of  laws  by  which  to 
regulate  his  conduct,  mistakes  the  character 
of  our  religion.  It  is  indeed  an  error,  and  a 
ruinous  one,  to  think  that  we  may  "continue 
in  sin  because  we  are  not  under  the  law  but 
under  grace";  but  it  is  also  an  error,  and  a 
far  commoner  one,  to  inquire  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, in  each  case  that  may  occur,  what  we 
are  strictly  bound  to  do  or  to  abstain  from, 
and  to  feel  secure  as  long  as  we  transgress  no 
distinct  commandment  But  he  who  seeks 
with  sincerity  for  Christian  principles  will  not 
fail  to  find  them.  If  we  endeavor,  through 
the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  trace  on  our  own 
heart  the  delineation  of  the  Christian  charac- 
ter which  the  Scriptures  present,  and  to  con- 
form all  our  actions  and  words  and  thoughts 
to  that  character,  our  Heavenly  Teacher  will 

366 


APPENDIX 

enable  us  to  '*have  a  right  judgment  in  all 
things";  and  we  shall  be  "led  by  the  Spirit" 
of  Christ  to  follow  His  steps,  and  to  "purify 
ourselves  even  as  He  is  pure,"  that  "when 
He  shall  appear  we  may  be  made  like  unto 
Him,  and  may  behold  Him  as  He  is." 


367 


PRINTED  BY  R.  R.  DONNELLEY 
AND  SONS  COMPANY,  AT  THE 
LAKESIDE  PRESS,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 


Princeton  Theoloaical  Seminary  Libraries 


1    1012 


01245   1722 


liiJiIji 


